Fotograf Zone – Barbara Hammer

Sanctus, 1990

With Sanctus Hammer combined many of the themes and techniques of production central to her practice. She rendered the invisible visible, revealing the skeletal structure of the human body as it protects the hidden fragility of internal organ systems, exploring facets of the female body, through found footage and an engagement with the material dimension of film. Both black-and-white and color, Sanctus comprises moving X-rays of female subjects shot on 16mm film. The footage was originally created in the 1950s by Dr. James Sibley, an amateur filmmaker and medical doctor who used cineradiography to show what it looks like inside a living, moving body. Hammer found the footage in an unopened box in the archives at George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, and edited them together with imagery from medical texts and diagrams to create layered, unconventional depictions beneath the skin of women performing various mundane tasks for the camera, such as drinking milk, washing their hands, and applying cosmetics.

On the one hand, Hammer’s film suggests the fragility of structure and mechanics of the human body as we observe the delicate armature of bones surrounding vulnerable organs. Moreover, Hammer stated, “In making Sanctus I was concerned about the contradictory qualities of beauty and danger of the images that were made by radiation. I delighted in the imagery, and at the same time I imagined the deleterious effects of the image-making on the subjects.” Thus, the medium itself is inseparable from the subject, as the very process of making the image leaves an invisible yet material trace upon the body it records. Sanctus is a continuation of Hammer’s career-long affirmation of female subjecthood. Through her striking manipulation of the imagery and a grand operatic score, the film vibrantly celebrates the survival and preserves the presence of, these anonymous female figures in celluloid.

Text: Kanitra Fletcher

FEVER STATE
October 4–12, 2025

EXHIBITORS
Szilvia Bolla, Leah Clements, Viola Fátyol, Barbara Hammer, Rowena Harris, Magdaléna Kašparová, Phelim Hoey, Barnabás Neogrády-Kiss and Jo Spence

CURATORS
Judit Szalipszki and Flóra Gadó

VENUE
Holešovice Market, Hall 13
Bubenské nábř. 306, 170 00, Prague 7 Holešovice

OPENING HOURS
10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.

Barbara Hammer

(1939–2019) was a pioneering visual artist and filmmaker, widely regarded as a trailblazer of queer cinema. Over a career spanning five decades, she created an influential body of experimental films and videos that illuminated lesbian histories, lives, and representations. Motivated by the absence of visibility, she used her work to inscribe lesbian experience onto the screen, leaving a vital cultural record for future generations. Hammer’s practice combined formal innovation with political urgency, profoundly shaping feminist and queer moving-image art.

#49 Talk Together

This issue explores language – its forms, possibilities, and limits. We look at how we communicate in the digital space, how the language of artificial intelligence changes our notions of creativity, and how visual images can replace words. You will discover why language is never neutral and how it shapes identity, creates inequalities, and opens paths to liberation. The issue features a reflection by bell hooks, the artistic practice of Eszter Magyar, projects documenting the Roma community in Brno, and visual essays by Claudia Larcher and Tabor Robak. The magazine presents language as a tool of communication, power, and resistance and invites you to reflect on what it truly means to talk to one another today.