Katalin DeérPresent Things

Faced with the pictures of Katalin Deér, one must resist the temptation to reason about photography in the strict sense, for the artist’s work is motivated entirely by sculpture. Her works move between the worlds of differing medial laws and yet at the same time seek to take concrete shape as picture-objects. Here photography does not focus on depiction but, as an object, points beyond the image. For the basis of this artistic strategy is the sculptural approach behind it, the artist developing her motifs out of a deliberate handling of object and space. In this context she works, for example, with constellations of everyday furniture: tables, chairs, stools and benches are built into and on top of one another in such a way that complex pictorial structures arise in space, whose shadows on the floor are not infrequently fixed as outline drawings, in individual cases then to be projected upwards, as it were as the base of the construction, and materialised as a plinth. In a further step such constellations serve as the model for photographs, by means of which these sculptural situations are translated medially onto another, deeper level of dimension. In the process, the resulting images of the constructs reveal architectural intimations that emerge, more or less clearly, at an early stage. Even if dimensionality is naturally of importance in the concrete and metaphorical handling of sculptural elements, it becomes apparent that measurements and proportions are not primarily what is at stake here. The present artist’s book is the first monographic publication by the artist, who lives in Switzerland, was born in the USA and whose parents come from Hungary.

Exhibitions:
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