Versus - Birgit Graschopf

Photographs on Watercolor paper, hand-colored, 56 x 85 cm + 21 x 32 cm, stainless steel frames, 2023, unique pieces

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Birgit Graschopf: Beyond the Surface

What, indeed, is an image? And what does it represent? Is it more than a mere illusionism? Questions such as these lead Graschopf to artistic formulations that sound out the boundaries of photography. The materials she employs already transcend those used in classical photography; she applies emulsion to substrates such as concrete or sandpaper, which she then exposes. These are haptic materials that she utilizes in analogy to the motifs she creates. Within them, she builds tensions that bring spaces and bodies into relation with one another. The artist further intensifies this theme by expanding the play with the illusionistic nature of the photographic image to include the dimension of space. She exposes large-scale motifs directly onto walls that correspond with the specific architectural situation. Depictions of women in spaces mirror the constellation of physically present observers—in the act of viewing, one becomes part of a self-reflexive installation or intervention.

The works are generally unique pieces that undermine the reproductive nature of the medium. Although Graschopf shoots digitally, she converts the captures back into analog negatives, which serve as the starting point from which she composes and often hand-colors her works. The pieces from the current series, „Versus,“ also engage with architecture—in this case, that of Oscar Niemeyer, whose buildings in Brasília became the point of departure for her stagings. Graschopf photographed on-site, relating modernist elegance and simultaneous sublimity to physicality. Yet, it is about standpoints that lead to perspectives: what seems real may only be the photograph of a reflection, or even a photomontage. Just as tilted images challenge the extent to which our perception is affected by a Eurocentric worldview—quite in analogy to the question of the illusionism inherent in photography.

Severin Dünser, Kurator

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Photograph on hand-cast concrete, hand-colored, 40 x 60 cm, 2023, unique piece