Current Quarry, Studio BvdL, Berlin
 

 

2023
 

Against the backdrop of the ever-evolving relationship between humans and technology, the exhibition CURRENT QUARRY illuminates processes of identity shift between analog and digital images. These shifts manifest in linguistic, visual, and physical forms.

 

Artist SUSANNE SCHWIETER addresses the question of what technological advancement, digital thinking, and a growing image archive mean and achieve in a societal context. The close interconnection between the analog and the digital plays a pivotal role.

At the heart of the exhibition lies the long-running series of works titled “Cruiser,” a set of large-format paintings that emerged from a Google image of a marble block in the Carrara quarry. They are abstract, the original motif no longer decipherable, emphasizing the ephemeral nature of images, language, and ultimately identity. These works engage with questions of legacy and copyright in the digital age, as well as the act of appropriation.

Schwieter’s approach is intuitive, with motifs emerging in an ongoing process. Each work within a series consistently references a shared photographic source. Shapes and silhou- ettes move from one work to the next, akin to actors in a theatrical performance. This dynamic continues in the CURRENT QUARRY exhibition, where the works span all the spaces across the two levels and engage in dialogue with one another.

​

Text: Maj van der Linden