Pawn

Gregor Hildebrandt saw a photograph by Will Steacy, an American photographer who had created a series about pawnshops in the ­United States. This in turn prompted Gregor ­Hildebrandt to play with the meaning and sense of the word pawnshop, i.e. to set up a shop in which chess pieces (pawns) were to be sold. moreWhen these are not directly ­connected to the game itself, he sees them and the shop itself as sculp­tures. For this purpose, he assembled the pawns in an installation covering the entire wall in evenly arranged rows of shelves. With this artist’s book, Gregor Hildebrandt further explores a wide variety of ­variations on the theme, including chess pieces of the most varied nature in their surroundings, chess patterns on floors and walls, on clothing, as a motif in his own abstract painting, and as ­decoration at an overseas cemetery. Gregor ­Hildebrandt’s collages, panel paintings, photo­g­raphic works and installations have always been a source of astonishment, even sensation, having used analog data carriers, i.e. audio and video tapes as well as records and their casings and covers as source material.