Sara-Lena Maierhofer - Dear Clark,
Foam Press Release | Amsterdam, 24 November 2011
Sara-Lena Maierhofer - Dear Clark,
16 December 2011 - 08
February 2012
What drives a person to constantly take on a new personality?
What characterises a man who systematically avoids being recognised
as himself? In Foam 3h, Sara-Lena Maierhofer (1982, Germany) shows
her investigation into the life and the lies of swindler and fraud
Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, alias Clark Rockefeller.
In Dear Clark, Sara-Lena Maierhofer tries to approach a
swindler and fraud whose life has consisted of carefully
constructing and then erasing his identity. After she fails in
convincing the man to meet with her personally, she decides to
study him from a distance. Step by step, she becomes better
acquainted with her subject: his appearance, his idiosyncrasies,
his intentions.
Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter (1961) was born in Germany and
moved to America to study as a teenager. Since that time he has
used many aliases and passed himself off as a success (varying from
presenter to government advisor). In Boston he posed as Clark
Rockefeller, related to the chic Rockefeller family, and married
Sandra Boss, a woman from a wealthy family. Christiaan lived in
luxury throughout their twelve-year marriage, while his wife
supported him. When Sandra discovered the extent of her husband's
deceptions, she filed for divorce. Following the divorce, Christian
lost custody of his daughter and kidnapped her, whereupon Sandra
hired a private investigator who exposed Christian's past.
Christian was arrested shortly after.
Maierhofer had read about Christian in the Süd-Deutsche
Zeitung newspaper; she was fascinated and became engrossed in
his life. His deceit captivated her, perhaps because she had
experienced that in photography, too, the dividing line between
fiction and reality is exceedingly fine. Maierhofer's aim is to
unmask photography as a lie in itself.
The project Dear Clark, consists of found photographs
and her own photos, as well as videos and documents. Maierhofer has
divided the story into a number of chapters such as De
Introductie [The Introduction], De Belofte
[The Promise], De Leugen [The Lie], etc.
This way the photographer adds context to the storyline and it
becomes an exemplary story for the many other swindlers.
Sara-Lena Maierhofer (Freudenstadt, 1982) studied photography
and media art at the University of Applied Sciences in Bielefeld.
In 2011 she won the Gute Aussichten Award for New
Photography 2011/2012.
Dear Clark, is on show at Foam from 16 December 2011
to 8 February 2012. Open daily from 10am to 6pm, Thurs/Fri
10am to 9pm. Ticket: € 8,50.
This exhibition has been made possible by Van Bijlevelt
Stichting
Note to editors: For more
information and visual material please contact the Communications
department, e-mail foam[at]foam.org or phone +31 20
5516500.
Foam is supported by BankGiro Loterij, De Brauw Blackstone
Westbroek, Delta Lloyd and the VandenEnde Foundation.
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