Projekt 17, Space 25, Basel
 

 

curated by Peter Steinmann / 2024

What impact do the constant flow of images and the growing image archive have on our society? What does technological progress look like, and what consequences does it bring? Susanne Schwieter’s works explore digital images and their dissemination. The works are based on the same source motif—a Google image of Carrara marble. The motif is appropriated, alienated, and transformed; through photography, it returns to the digital world and back into the analog; a continuous exploration of images emerges, created from images of images. The works represent a close connection between classical painting and photography. Through the systematic reworking of the motifs in multiple processes, they are abstracted and play with the viewer’s perception and memory. The memory of the origin is barely recognizable in the images, yet it remains present and preserves its traces, serving as a reminder that something existed and continues to exist in another form. The meaning of the individual motifs shifts through an “artistic” appropriation. This experimental approach presents images as traces of time and testifies to the infinite possibilities of pictorial reality. 

 

Text: Elwira Spychalska

Fotos: Peter Steinmann