Dec 7, 2024 – Feb 23, 2025
Rachel Ashton
Crossing the Bar, 2024
-
Crossing the Bar, 2024
Fine art print, black aluminum frame
20 × 30 cm
Edition of 5, with certificate
500 €
The works of artist Rachel Ashton are often site-specific, as is the case with the edition Crossing the Bar (2024).The photograph was taken in the Bassgeige, a longestablished jazz bar in Braunschweig, during the filming of a video work of the same name. Fiction and reality merge in this filmic portrait of this popular Braunschweig institution, which first opened in 1977. In the film, the pub becomes a stage, the barkeeper and the regularsbecome protagonists who consciously or unconsciously relinquish their self-determination.The photograph, on the other hand, shows a deserted but nevertheless lively place. The bar counter, which is progressively assembled like a collage, is in constant transformation. As if in rotation, things come and go, disappear and are added. In addition to bottles and glasses, there are also many handwritten notes, small figurines, and other personal objects to be seen. In these objects, which may appear inconspicuous at first glance, one finds many vivid moments. Nostalgia and themes related to dreams are recurring themes in Ashton’s work. These memories, both individual and collective, live on in the bar and are passed down from generation to generation.