Around 2,000 years ago, in a sandstone cave in the western US state of Utah,
a slab of rock appears to have detached from the cave wall leaving a flat
exposed surface, upon which over the succeeding centuries, artists drew.
The strange, life-size drawings of humans may have emerged during a time of
„great change“, suggests Professor of Anthropology at Utah State University,
Steven Simms: During that time, cereal farmers were migrating in great numbers
into the region from the south superseding the formerly predominant
hunter-gatherer society by one based on agriculture.
What significance these unearthly figures had for the declining hunter-gatherers
can only be speculated upon, says Simms. Perhaps the cave drawings are an
expression of an ancient tradition by which the threatened people attempted to
orientate themselves in an overwhelming situation „in order to draw strength
from them“.

2.000 years later, artist Patrick Brandt from Essen, Germany, created the picture „Group 10“ in his work series Aktivografien in which he applies digital picture points to radiographic image constructions. The picture „Group 10“ has also been created in a time of change towards a world that has become increasingly more synthetic and technological. Despite his having no prior knowledge of the existence of the Utah cave drawings, Brandt’s drawings bear a striking resemblance to them. This surprising circumstance led him to the idea of starting a series of pictorial comparisons, to be seen in the „Two-Picture-Exhibition“ entitled „Time of Great Change“.

Peter Brdenk Deputy Director, Forum Kunst und Arcihtektur, Essen

Source: National Geographic April 2015