HANS-CHRISTIAN SCHINK | Unter Wasser

For its second exhibition this year, Kicken Berlin presents a selection from the new series Unter Wasser (Under water, 2020-2021) by Hans-Christian Schink. Following his large-format natural and cultural landscapes and the prizewinning experimental series 1h, Schink has now incorporated chance into his work in a new way. His photographs were created with an underwater camera but without submerging himself to look through the finder and compose the picture. A book on the series has just been released by Hartmann Books.
Hans-Christian Schink has circled the whole globe with his visual studies of socially manifested topographies. From East Germany (Verkehrsprojekte Deutsche Einheit, 1995-2003) he went on to the US (L.A. Night, 2002-2003), Latin America (Peru, 2004) and multiple times to Asia (Vietnam, 2005; Niigata, 2009; Tohoku, 2012; Burma 2013-2016; Kochi Nights, 2016), across endless ice (Antarctica, 2010), and to places of history-laden and -burdened architecture and cultural landscapes in Italy (Aqua Claudia, EUR, 2014) and back to Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Hinterland, 2012-2019). The series 1h (2003-2010) traces the arc of the sun from various points on the northern and southern hemisphere.
A selection from various groups of work by Schink, including Hinterland, Vietnam, and Unter Wasser, is also currently on view at the Von der Heydt Museum Wuppertal alongside modern works from its nineteenth and twentieth centuries collection. The exhibition is entitled Freundschaftsanfrage No. 1.
With his series Hinterland, Schink returned to his home of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, which is where his engagement with the Mecklenburg lake region and the series Unter Wasser have their roots. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is the region in Germany with the most water. Shaped by the Weichselian glacial period, the landscape boasts a diversity of bodies of water: larger and smaller lakes as well as kettle basins —small round, funnel-shaped cavities of the earth — created by glacial formations such as moraines and glacial valleys. Centuries-old agricultural irrigation and draining structures also define the landscape.
It was soley into static and mostly small waters that Schink plunged his camera. The artist developed a carefully planned, chance-based approach in which he determined a shoot location but then pushed the camera underwater from a swimming device and pressed the release without submerging himself in order to see the motif.
It is just one step from the land to the underwater landscape, but the shift of elements reveals unforeseen spacial and visual experiences. The sense of space often becomes limited, and relative scales become murky. The camera captures only a narrow selection. The lens covers only a distance of up to half a meter, the view clouded by refractions and suspended particles beyond that.
Sometimes the camera is close to the action; the growth, leaves, and grasses appear sharply before the lens. Other times we are afforded a wider view in which we might see a sculptural miniature landscape among overgrown undulations. In some cases we may recognise plants like reeds or water lilies, a snail or a swarm of fish, but their scientific classification is not the point.
In some cases the sheer color effect of the water — alight and shining bright green — is dominant with no other objects in sight. The lighting, determined by the fall of daylight from above, encompasses a wide color spectrum of blue, green, yellow, and brown tones. Some rays may bring details to light, while others transform the scene into amorphous and soft cloud forms, –immediately evoking haptic associations.
Landscape images of waters in the Mecklenburg lake region, which are included in the book publication, provide topographic insights: the location of a kettle basin, a ditch, or a part of a larger lake. The traces of people are implicit in this series, with settlements and cultivation included in the view.
Even the idyllic and poetic underwater landscapes are not exempt from the effects of agriculture and climate change. The relationship between man and nature shifts continually farther out of balance. Seasonal and climatic shifts in the water levels and temperatures are increasing. Making these unfamiliar spheres of life visible also serves to raise consciousness of such urgent issues. “The effects of human civilization remain the greatest risk to the stability of this biotope,” Schink relates soberly in the text accompanying his book.

Hans-Christian Schink @ Wilmina
Photographs by Hans-Christian Schink from the series Vietnam and 1h also grace the newly refurbished Hotel Wilmina in Berlin-Charlottenburg, in the gallery’s neighborhood. The curatorial concept for the newly awaked Wilmina complex, consisting of buildings, courtyards, and gardens, focuses on an engagement with habitats and natural landscapes, plants, and the elements as captured in photography. Schink’s works enter into a complex dialogue with the uniquely designed ensemble of interior and garden spaces.