Sissi Farassat and Gregor Neuerer in Left but a Trace at Cornerhouse until 23rd March

The photography of Iranian-born photographer Sissi Farassat and Austrian artist Gregor Neuerer are brought together in Left but a Trace.

Using her own image as the subject of her work, Farassat walks the tightrope between revealing intimate details of her life yet never allowing the viewer into her personal sphere. New work for this exhibition, a series of Polaroid self-portraits, shows the artist in subtle erotic moments, but never exposed in complete nudity. Such images appear to open a window into her private space but in reality offer little more than a fleeting glimpse.

The theme of voyeurism also runs through a series of light boxes Farassat uses to display images of the female form. Equipped with sensors, the light boxes switch off if they detect the viewer coming too close and the image is lost. By rendering other photographs anonymous, stitching into them to reveal only an evocative thread silhouette on the reverse or using a blaze of coloured sequins the artist succeeds in detracting attention from the subject herself.

Gregor Neuerer has gone inside a traditional Victorian terrace and a Viennese apartment house in two series of photographs that discover traces of human activity in now vacant spaces. Neuerer’s work examines not only the transient occupation of these spaces by people but also the nature of architecture and the provision of homes when demand for family accommodation required mass production. The images in the slide projection Dedicated to the Neighbours show empty spaces in a typical two up, two down where traces of people, such as where shoulders have brushed against the walls of narrow hallways, have been highlighted by the artist in pencil.

Returning to his home country for the series of photographs New Tenant, Neuerer finds physical traces of previous occupiers in an office which is being turned back into an apartment. Items such as a neon light, a padded door and several cable connections give a clear indication of its former use. By using the same technique of tracing the former tenant’s presence with pencil and photographing the results, a visual reconstruction of their activities is created.