Within the Sea of Fog #1, 2022
Fine art print on Poyo Satin Gloss Baryta, 72 x 108 cm: 3 + 2 AP

In the Within the Sea of Fog series, Sebastian Acker located the Dresden rock formations (close to where Acker grew up) that inspired Caspar David Friedrich in his painting Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, 1818 and photographed them surrounded by artificially produced fog made from (offset) carbon dioxide. By recreating and subverting one of the most iconic images of Romanticism, Acker’s series of photographic images challenge our constructed ideas of nature’s “sublime”, whilst questioning the image of the isolated artist, standing triumphant above nature, far removed from the natural world.

For the Romantics, the sublime was to experience the wonder of creation, when our (exterior) rational mind is overwhelmed by our (interior) emotions. A state of being that only manages to exaggerate the separation between humans and the non-man-made environment. By changing the perspective so that the rocks are seen from a horizontal plane rather than from above (like in Friedrich’s painting), Acker demonstrates humans’ urgent obligation to reconsider their connection with the planet. A point magnified by the use of artificially produced carbon dioxide; the primary greenhouse gas emitted through human activities.