Olaf Martens

Olaf Martens has always been unique – overflowing with humour, energy and above all endless creativity. His works is characterised by uniting contrary details, and refiguring them in a very unique and hybrid manner. This leaves many questions to the viewer, not apparent on first glance.

The theme of the outside and the outsider has been a recurring theme in Martens work from the very beginning. His images are most often taken in broken factories, the outskirts of cities, in cities like Russia, Czechoslovakia, Turkey and East Germany. The outsider roles recurring in Martens' world, in a sense similar to David Lynch's imagery, are cleaning women, dwarfs, seamstresses, overly fat women, strippers, dancers, transvestites etc. They inhabit and take the opposite end of the spectrum, as Martens ironically combines them with, at first glance, seemingly flawless models. Yet, the model appears in latex, gas masks, workers' outfits and high heels, adding another hybrid layer to his work.

Another recurring theme is the idea of the accident and imperfection. Often people are wounded or in dangerous situations. Or people are rushing through his scenes that should not really be there. It is important that the models often have their eyes half closed, or that the image itself exists by purely coincidence.

The more the viewer engages in Olaf Martens' constructed worlds, the more complex his images become, as the Russian dolls that seemingly bear endless numbers of dolls inside each other. Olaf Martens allows us to indulge and re-negotiate our own levels of fantasy, making his work highly interesting.