An untiring production of images has given form to a repertoire of unique gestures (2024-ongoing)

Wolfgang Ullrich on POSES:

"In his project Stefan Zeyen creates a formally reduced, almost minimalist setting, which then allows for myriad variations. Each photo features a single gesture against a dark backdrop – sometimes one hand, sometimes two. However, the person performing the gesture remains unseen. This absence invites viewers to concentrate on the gesture itself, despite the temptation to infer conclusions from the skin’s appearance, jewellery, or tattoos. But that is not Zeyen’s intention. Instead, he employs the decontextualisation of these gestures to make them present in their uniqueness. We all recognise these gestures from everyday life, but without the specific contexts in which they were captured, it is impossible to assign them a definitive meaning. Like words, gestures only gain clear significance within a context; without it, they possess merely semantic potential. Zeyen’s series could thus be viewed as a commentary on practices that are especially prevalent in social media. Take emojis, for example, which include countless hand gestures. In everyday use, however, the same hand emoji can convey vastly different meanings. It is similar with memes, where an image is taken out of context and assigned a specific new meaning through accompanying text. Those familiar with social media customs will see the photos in Zeyen’s series as invitations to contribute and thus semantically define them. Therefore, POSES also has a participatory dimension; the project can be seen not only as an archive of gestures but also as a resource from which anyone wishing to give visual clarity to a statement can draw. Stefan Zeyen’s project reflects contemporary visual practices while simultaneously visualising their cultural-historical dimensions – particularly through the use of dark backgrounds, reminiscent of traditional art. Hand gestures also played a crucial role in earlier phases of art history, such as the Gothic and Renaissance periods, when images primarily served communicative purposes, and the hands of protagonists were central to conveying messages. It was only in the era of Western modernism, as art became self-referential and no longer aimed to communicate to message-conscious audiences, that gestures diminished in importance. Now, they are returning, positioning Western modernism as a unique episode in the history of art."
Leipzig January 2024