Disenchantment - from non-places and childlike fantasy

Children invest their first pocket money in sweets and belongings from vending machines. For 10 to 50 cents they get spooky eyes bubble gum with fruity strawberry flavor , small, shrill toys and glittering jewelry, packed in capsules. They enjoy grossing out their mothers with slimy, garishly colored creepy crawlers. They obtain the childlike belongings from one of the approximately 800,000 chewing gum machines that hang on house walls all over Germany. Adults do not notice the machines anymore, because their locations represent a kind of blind spot for them. In this way, ugly, run-down places are negated by them. The French anthropologist Marc Augé coined the word ‘Non-Place’ for such monofunctional areas that lack their own history, relationship and identity. The chewing gum machines can be understood as indicators of such non-places. The series "Disenchantment” lives on the contrast between images of belongings from the chewing gum machines and the "non-places" at which they are found. Conceptually, a topography of the lost childhood unfolds. The childlike treasures - taken against a black background - are shown in strong stylization and pop-art-like elevation. The vending machines - emphasized only by spot illumination - remain in their shady "non-location" environment. Thus, the series encircles the gap between the magic of childhood and an increasing disillusionment in adult life.