Maik Gräf’s solo exhibition Blue Heat Haze refers to Derek Jarman’s film Blue (1993). The color blue defines the works on display, where the blue of the photographic cyanotype technique merges with blue denim fabric to create image-objects. The motifs embedded into the fabric speak of the lived realities and aesthetics of queer individuals—primarily gay men—during the early years of the HIV/AIDS crisis. By reproducing, cutting, and layering visual material from gay erotic magazines along with articles on political responses and discourses, the works serve both as a system of references and as fragmentary image montages. This tension between fragmentation and a cohesive whole becomes a guiding principle in both form and theme. The works reflect the interplay of partial perspectives, group identities, and political movements. In doing so, they bring into view the storytelling of their own history-telling.
Text: Heiko Lietz