The work of Bernd Halbherr addresses the perception of our environment. Through his photography, which combines spherical and cylindrical shapes with the use of mirrors, he creates apparatuses and installations that affect our familiarity with and awareness of a given environment. The works achieve simple but effective means of offering new perspectives. In a series of works consisting of spherical shapes and photographic images, photos were taken of an entire room in its initial state, then reproduced onto a spherical shape, such as the sculpture SALDO exhibited in 1997 at the Kunstpalast Düsseldorf. This work’s smaller predecessor, Mundus in Universum, was exhibited in 1994 at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. The sphere, covered with a 360-degree photograph of the exhibition hall, presents what appears to be a mirror image of the surrounding room. The mechanics of human perception are disoriented because this mirror image cannot be changed; it exists as a fixed photograph independent of temporary changeability. This piece questions our very basis of understanding. In his works Indifferenzen 1988 in Berlin and Ansichten 1994 in Ulm, installed outdoors on advertising pillars, the viewer’s entire environment appears to be complete, but at the same time this familiar viewpoint is unusual, since images of everyday life appear on the columns instead of advertising materials. Here, perception itself is the advertising message created by the artworks.
