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Katalin Deér: Present Things
Text (German/English) by Max Wechsler
80 p with 58 colour illustrations
165 x 320 mm, Softcover as Swiss brochure
ISBN 978-3-940953-16-2
Collapsing buildings
In view of Katalin Deér’s photographs, it would be an idea to resist the temptation of arguing about photography per se, for the artist’s work is motivated entirely sculpturally. Her works move between the worlds of different medial dispensations and at the same time attempt to take on concrete form as pictorial objects. In this case photography doesn’t focus upon representation, but as an object, points to a dimension beyond the image. For this artistic strategy is predicated upon the artist’s sculptural approach, which in turn harnesses her motifs in a precise use of object and space.
In this particular context for example, she preoccupies herself with groups of normal, everyday pieces of furniture: tables, chairs, stools and benches are constructed upon and intertwining with one another to such an extent that complex graphic structures arise in space, whose shadows cast on the floor can frequently be discerned as a kind of sketch, only then in individual cases to be projected upward as the basis for construction as it were, duly taking on material form as a pedestal. Taking things a step further, such groupings serve as a template for photographs whereby these plastic situations are translated into a different, deeper dimensional level. In so doing the images of the constructs thus derived become more or less manifestly architectural evocations. Even if the dimensionality is self-evidently important in the concrete and metaphorical use of sculptural elements, it is apparent that it is not primarily just a question of relative dimensions that is at stake here.
This artist’s edition is the first solo publication on the work of the artist who was born in the USA to parents from Hungary and now lives in Switzerland.
Exhibition:
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, 12/02–19/04/09
Kunstverein Heilbronn, 24/05–16/08/09
Museum Moderner Kunst Kärnten, Klagenfurt, 30/09/2009–31/01/2010