Named after two connecting cities on the German railroad, Untitled (Oberhausen-Osterfeld Süd) is typical of Rheinhard Mucha’s ongoing interest in the railway system, a means of transportation still heavily relied upon in his native Germany. The work was created from a display cabinet that contained a schedule of the arrival and departure times of locomotives, while the photographs contained in the cabinet document a work in which Mucha, then a student at Düsseldorf Academy of Art, created a mock train station out of available furnishings from a classroom.
Untitled (Oberhausen-Osterfeld Süd) seems to exist in transit. Combining photographs that document a temporary installation with an empty case that reflects only the viewer creates a moment in time that is both unattainable and within reach. Thus the railroad system is presented as both an institution on the verge of obsolescence and a time-honored symbol of voyage, journey, and connection.