"Atlantis"

Cibachrome on aluminium

"Are aquariums only artificial biotopes created to observe fish? Hammerstiel takes a close look at the created images which are enabled by the various props of aquarium lovers. Blue is not only the colour of the sea, but also the romantic colour of distance and longing. Ruins were already important props to ignite the imagination in the landscape gardens of the 18th century. Aren't the isolated plastic ruins floating in blue from the catalogue fascinating images of longing and melancholy too? As in the work group "Yucca", Hammerstiel uses the formal tension between individual object and series to create a tension similar to the spatial stagings of Minimalism".
(Bernd Schulz, Saarbrücken 1998)