BEATE GÜTSCHOW

Beate Gütschow first became known for her large-format color landscape photographs, produced by assembling fragments of individual photographs on the computer.
Gütschow has used same work process to create her new black-and-white photographs. Her own photographs and others found in books and archives served as the basic material. The resulting images depict an unreal, apocalyptic world. We see uninhabited urban areas, fragments of civilization heaped on top of each other; empty lots are lined up, one behind the other, or are occupied by monumental buildings that once carried the weight of modern futurism. People are isolated islands in this inhospitable world: they appear alienated, lacking a tolerable way of keeping their lives together. The pictures remind us of regions in crisis, but cannot be associated with a specific country or conflict.
As do her panoramic landscapes, these urban scenarios disturb the viewer by their thoughtful treatment of remembered images. In Gütschow?s work, fleeting images are provided with a succinct structure. In breaking with reality, the photographs prompt us to look more carefully, impelling us to ask what lies behind the things we take for granted.
The medium does not help us to place the photographs in a particular time period. Although black-and-white photography usually betokens authenticity or a documentary-like quality, the digital process turns the pictures into fiction.

Beate Gütschow, born in 1970, studied in Hamburg under Bernhard Johannes Blume and Wolfgang Tillmans. The artist lives and works in Berlin. She is the recipient of the Otto Dix Prize for New Media and a Villa Aurora grant, Los Angeles, USA.



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