[2002] Palm Canyon

Wood construction, paint, sand, rear-projection video, stage projectors, projection mirror
Dimensions variable (approx. 250 x 350 x 230 cm)

Palm Canyon refers to the power of images of Southern California's modern architecture icons of the 1950's produced by architectural photographer Julius Shulman in particular, and Hollywood cinema in general. Using footage shot at an Albert Frey building in Palm Springs, and responding to the structure of the Schindler House, the installation aims to decode cinematic photographs as places of collective memory, (mis-)remembering and the imaginary.

"[...] Nimmerfall structures the exhibition space by constructing walls to form corners, corridors, and chambers. They cite stage design or film sets, because they never disguise their intended purpose as scenery for illusions. The constructed architecture is crossed with the virtual space in the projections. In turn the subjects of the projected images are rooms (photographed) and therefore, change perspective into medial reality. A direct examination of the synaesthetic experience of real and virtual spatial situations and dimensions takes place. In contrast to the abundance in contemporary video-installations, Nimmerfall uses digital photography. She selects rooms, which originate in the iconography of the modern and which re-evoke their inherent, redemptive promise: so clear, so orderly, so free of ballast—that must be successful living. Occasionally, animated details in the static photographs provide additional appeal: a fire is flickering in the hearth, or a cactus gently sways in the desert light.

What's more, Nimmerfall spins a web of reflection over the staged architecture. She reflects on the translation of real interiors, houses and locations into images, which are constructed so they can be presented in the media (in film) or similarly represented (in home magazines and architectural publications).[...]" - Stella Rollig