translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville,
300112: Galerie Hubert Winter Birgit Jürgenssen - Cyanotypes 1988/89
Galerie Hubert Winter
Birgit Jürgenssen - Cyanotypes 1988/89
13.01.12 - 04.02.12
The depth of texts
Blue walks into the labyrinth. Absolute silence is demanded to all its visitors, so their presence does not disturb the poets who are directing the excavations.
Derek Jarman
Birgit Jürgenssen mainly focused her work on the interaction between literature and everyday life. During the last years, diverse labels sometimes veiled the view of her oeuvre – but now the exhibition “Cyantypes” in the Gallery Hubert Winter offers a new vision of her work.
Cyanotype is one of the first photographic procedures, discovered by the English scientist John Herschel in 1842. A photographic solution comprised of iron salts and distilled water is applied to a neutral surface. One or several objects are placed on the surface and exposing it to sunlight produces the positive image. The results resemble blueprints – the objects being white and the surrounding area blue.
Today, the color blue is mainly connoted as masculine, while it was a symbol of femininity in the ancient times. Blue also symbolizes the sea and is often seen in connection with “unlimited distance”, “hope”, and “depth”. The pictures shown here all seem to represent a kind of unlimited distance and depth. This effect is mainly accentuated by the arrangement of the objects and only to a lesser part due to the color.
Oftentimes family photographs were used as the main element in the Cyanotypes. All of Jürgenssen's works are exhibited in one space - next to one another and juxtaposed. The quality of the individual works varies strongly and some of them might not have been successful on their own.
Works in which Jürgenssen added text attract the most attention. They remind of Dadaist collages and conceptual art. The picture levels are superimposed like veils, offering connections between body politics and text. And there are connections to her earlier works such as “Everyone has their own view” (1975) and “Untitled (body projection)” (1998) or “Whiff” (1995) and “I am” (1995).
Hopefully this oeuvre won’t disappear into a private collection and has the chance to be exhibited in many other contexts. It would be important to show Jürgenssens oeuvre in other contexts than feminism or body politics, after all – that is not what she intended. The texts run through her entire work like a thread – it remains to be seen if the thread will be weaved or if it stays hidden and unwoven in diverse collections.
By Patrick Schabus
Galerie Hubert Winter
1070 Vienna, Breite Gasse 17
Tel: 01/524 09 76
Fax: 01/524 09 76-9
email: office@galeriewinter.at
http://www.galeriewinter.at
Opening hours: Tue - Fri 11 – 18 hours, Sat 11 – 13 hours
Mehr Texte von translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville
300112
Galerie Hubert Winter
1070 Wien, Breite Gasse 17
Tel: +43 1 524 09 76, Fax: +43 1 524 09 76 9
Email: office@galeriewinter.at
http://www.galeriewinter.at
Öffnungszeiten: Di-Fr: 11-18h
Sa 11-14h
Galerie Hubert Winter
1070 Wien, Breite Gasse 17
Tel: +43 1 524 09 76, Fax: +43 1 524 09 76 9
Email: office@galeriewinter.at
http://www.galeriewinter.at
Öffnungszeiten: Di-Fr: 11-18h
Sa 11-14h