Biography
Eric Bell (*1985 St. Catharines CA) and Kristoffer Frick (*1985 Nürtingen DE) create photographic and cinematographic work that explores the aesthetic readability of modern representation systems in design and art. The question of how material and formal characteristics influence the connotative meanings of work, as well as its frame of interpretation, is fundamental for Bell & Frick. Their images, whether staged or found and altered, deal with complex systems of reference.
Bell & Frick began working collaboratively in 2006. Bell began his art studies at the University of Western Ontario, in London, Canada, before joining Frick in the class of Willem de Rooij at the Hochschule für bildende Künste, Städelschule in Frankfurt. They currently live and work in Berlin.
Spanning photography, video, and installation, the work of Bell & Frick typically involves the presentation and staging of found objects, ranging from the ordinary to finely-crafted cultural artefacts. Drawing from histories of cinema, advertising, and industrial photography, they create pictures that examine the codes and aesthetics of modern representation systems. Their latest series depicts precisely arranged displays where complex layers of meaning arise from objects that are somewhat familiar but often decontextualized. Thereby, symbolically-charged objects, ranging from specifically designed tools and repurposed items to healing instruments associated with the New Age movement, as well as indigenous ceremonial implements, are arranged in the manner of still life. It is a genre of overdetermined, highly aestheticized, and indeterminate symbolic imagery. However, there is a twist in each photograph that leads to a broader interpretation. Besides clearly recognizable objects, there are hints of the surrounding interiors and details blurred, or receding beyond the frame.
An early work that explores the aesthetics of the design is the series Hybrids (2010-2012). In these pictures, Bell & Frick examine the moment of desire that is entailed in the design of a product and thus elicits a reaction in the viewer. The series depicts eleven hybrid motors by different automobile manufacturers. They show the inside of objects of status and luxury in a black and white documentary style. The images depict only the outer surface of the actual technology, which is designed to transmit the aura of gravity and speed rather than the functional design. Thus, their interest lies more in revealing design strategies that are meant to show the worth and potential of the motor hidden beneath the car hood.
Bell & Frick have participated in multiple solo and group shows. Their work has been presented at international institutions, including KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2017), the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2018/2012), Kunstverein München, Munich (2012), and in solo exhibitions at Bureaucracy Studies, Lausanne (2019) and Galerie Cinzia Friedlaender, Berlin (2013).