Andreas Duscha »Perpetuum«

Perpetuum, 2022

Andreas Duscha's mirrored cyanotypes – a slow-reacting photographic formulation that produces a cyan-blue print when exposed to light – take about 15 minutes to emerge. In his work series Perpetuum he explores humankind's insatiable (yet inconclusive) desire for never-ending energy and the dream of being able to create that energy.

Each work piece features another daring apparatus by an inventor in search of developing a perpetual motion machine, a machine that would work infinitely without an external energy source. In hindsight, all of these attempts were doomed to fail as they violate either the first or second law of thermodynamics, or both.

Andreas Duscha

Andreas Duscha's (*1976, Heidenheim a. d. Brenz, Germany) works are of an aesthetic, almost poetic quality; but, beneath, a backstory waits to be discovered. Duscha carries out extensive research, digging through archives and historic accounts to uncover anecdotes of events and incidents of varying sociological relevance, inviting viewers to immerse themselves in different levels of perception.

As a carrier of his narratives Duscha has characteristically chosen mirror glass. In the course of working with analogue photo techniques such as cyanotype, which implies chance or accident, Duscha is seeking to increasingly combine both techniques, interpreting mirror as an unexposed negative of sorts, able to capture and reflect a certain “aura”.

Read our studio story with Andreas Duscha.

Photo: Maximilian Pramatarov