Paul Knight: L’ombre de ton ombre

Paul Knight: L’ombre de ton ombre

Paul Knight: L’ombre de ton ombre is the first monograph dedicated to Australian-born and Berlin-based artist Paul Knight, and accompanies his first survey exhibition, co-commissioned by MUMA and UNSW Galleries.

For more than two decades, Knight has taken intimacy as his subject. His ongoing photographic project, Chamber Music, records the life he shares with his partner Peter. Since they met in 2009, the series has accumulated hundreds of glimpses into the domestic space of their relationship, with its images created through varying degrees of pre-meditation and chance; often the camera timer is set so that it simply captures what it sees. The photographs test the ability of this machine—the camera—and the prints it produces to capture and contain intimacy. The images hold human love, which Knight proposes might be our only positive legacy in a future in which machine intelligence carries on, bearing the mark of its creators, beyond humanity itself.

Paul Knight: L’ombre de ton ombre features an extensive selection of photographs from Chamber Music and details the algorithmic working methods of the textile and machine learning works that Knight has developed for the exhibition. It brings artistic and scientific perspectives into conversation with his evolving practice through contributions from art historian Professor Anthony Gardner, theoretical astrophysicist Dr Katie Mack and philosopher Oxana Timofeeva.

Please be advised that this publication explores themes of sexual intimacy, and contains adult content including nudity and sexually explicit images and language. Viewer discretion is advised.

Visit the exhibition page.

184 pages, 295 x 220 mm, softcover
Texts: Anthony Gardner, Paul Knight, Katie Mack, Oxana Timofeeva
Foreword: José Da Silva and Pip Wallis
Coordinating editor: Francis E. Parker
Design: Stuart Geddes and Žiga Testen
Edition: 600
Year: 2023
ISBN: 978-1-922545-22-0
Published by: Monash University Museum of Art | MUMA, UNSW Galleries and Perimeter Editions
Distribution: Perimeter Distribution and Idea books

Publication images courtesy of the artist and Neon Parc, Naarm/Melbourne.