(2022-2023)

Top-down camera perspective. Lateral lights. An object in the center.
A collectible. Military equipment. Stamps. Coins. Envelopes. Old love letters. Various documents and identification cards from earlier times. Family photos. Collectible albums. Zeppelin fragments. Cups. Jewels.

Outtake is a photo series created during my time working at an auction house. Most of the images are unused test shots taken for cataloging purposes, or spontaneous photographs captured shortly before or after working hours.

At the center of the work is a video performance by artist Hyemin Nam, in which she reads excerpts from the diary of a former member of the Reich Labour Service (RAD), who served for eight months during World War II. The diary, along with several other historical objects featured in the series, was discovered by chance during object photography at the Auction Hous. Some of the items were also part of public auctions.

In the diary, the author notes that he initially did not intend to keep a record but eventually decided to write down his experiences to leave something for his children and family.

Nam reads these notes over the course of an hour, filmed simultaneously from three different angles. The act of reading – or re-reading – history becomes the conceptual core of the video.

A key question explored in both the photo series and the three-channel video installation is how and why such artifacts – some of which are linked to the Nazi era or colonial history – continue to reappear on the art and auction markets, and what kind of interest they generate globally.