Katalin Deér: Present Things

Falling houses

In view of Katalin Deér's pictures, it is important to resist the temptation to talk about photography in the true sense of the word, as the artist's work is entirely sculpturally motivated. Her works move between the worlds of different media regularities and at the same time attempt to concretise themselves as pictorial objects. Photography is not focussed here on the image, but as an object refers beyond the image. The basis of this artistic strategy is the underlying sculptural approach of the artist, who develops her motifs from a targeted approach to object and space. In this context, for example, she deals with constellations of everyday furniture: tables, chairs, stools and benches are built into and on top of each other in such a way that complex sculptural structures are created in the room, whose shadows are often outlined on the floor and then, in some cases, projected upwards as the basis of the construction and materialised as a plinth. In a further step, such constellations now serve as models for photographs, whereby these sculptural situations are translated medially to another, deeper level of dimension. The resulting images of the constructs reveal more or less clearly emerging architectural impressions at an early stage. Even if scale is of course important in the concrete and metaphorical handling of sculptural elements, it is clear that it is not primarily dimensions and proportions that are at stake here. This artist's book is the first solo publication by the artist, who lives in Switzerland and was born in the USA to Hungarian parents.

Exhibitions:
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, 12/02-19/04/09
Kunstverein Heilbronn, 24/05-16/08/09
Museum of Modern Art Carinthia, Klagenfurt, 30/09/2009-31/01/2010