Exhibition
Private Rooms - Hannah Byford

Hannah Byford's position thus is not limited to the mere concept of art, but rather extends to an expanded concept of the image, in which art has an inherent exemplary function. As a rule, art is a place where forms of expression are invented, explored and tested with a great deal of freedom, which then often have an effect on areas outside the sphere of art.

The epochs and their respective spirit of the times are often not merely reflected in the art that corresponds to them; rather, art often precedes an epoch and its spirit of the times and, as a quasi-futuristic research laboratory, fulfils its own avant-garde claim. In the case of the present work, the artistic medium and the conceptual approach of the artist are additionally of special importance for the question if and to what extent interactions between artistic forms of expression and social realities exist.

Under the title "Private Rooms", the KWS Art Lounge NEWCOMER presents 11 photographs from Hannah Byford's "Female Exposure" series, which on the one hand question pudency in the face of nudity and on the other reveal the high degree of intimacy of private spaces. The photographs are united by a uniform pictorial composition and bring together a wide range of different atmospheres and individual expressions. The nude is the central motif of the series and yet the views of the rooms and backgrounds of the photographic stagings appear to be at least equally important in terms of content. In close collaboration with her models, Hannah Byford has succeeded in producing authentically convincing and content-wise condensed photographs that allow us to experience the naturalness of the naked body and the intimate atmosphere of private spaces.

As in the fairy tale "The Emperor's New Clothes", the models seem to be unaware of their own nudity in the photographs and neither shame nor eroticism are expressed through facial expressions or gestures. In terms of content, the pictorial compositions actually appear to be independent of the formal state of the nudity or clothing, and the photographs are ultimately less about a self-confident display of naked bodies than about the display of a normal self-confidence. The exhibition "Private Rooms" shows us images that present nudity as a normal and natural state and transport the atmospheric density of places. The high level of privacy in the rooms enables Hannah Byford to break through the erotic or sexual connotation of the act, which has already become the norm, and to represent the naked female body in intimate moments without misunderstanding it as a voyeuristic sensation.