Graduate Show HfbK, Hamburg, Germany, 2021

Press text:

The poem is lonely. It is lonely and en route. Its author stays with it. Does this very fact not place the poem already here, at its inception, in the encounter, in the mystery of encounter? The poem wants to head toward some other, it needs this other, it needs an opposite. It seeks it out, it bespeaks itself to it. (Paul Celan, 1960)

In his artistic practice Max Eicke poses the question of intimacy, trust and vulnerability in interpersonal relationships. Intimacy is the fulcrum between our bodies and the public, capable of protecting or exposing us. Rather than acting from an outsider’s perpective, Eicke works through his process as a friend, a lover, an intimate participant. The motivation behind his images – which are usually the result of discrete encounters and rarely shot as thematic projects – is always deeply personal and emotional.

Inkjet prints & c-prints, framed, various sizes