Birgit Krause | Involuntary Memories

A dark forest, a lone bird, a gray moon landscape in the fog. Birgit Krause has assembled these images in her “Unwillkürliche Erinnerungen” (involuntary memories) exhibition: A collection of works that have been inspired by the artist's personal impressions and experiences without being autobiographical.

Krause has named the first part of her involuntary memories “Recherche”. The pictures in this series allude to the photographer's childhood in washed-out shades of gray. Taken with a disposable camera, she's captured motives that correspond to events in her personal history. The pieces are blurred and mysterious, like the way a child views the world. But this isn't a retrospective – it's a reinterpretation of things past. Hawaiian volcano landscapes have substituted the dikes of northern Germany that Krause grew up with. There is a picture of a vacant bunker in Strausberg, furnished with a set table and empty chairs, because it reminds the artist of her kindergarten in Hildesheim.

For the second part, “Blue Monday”, the photographer widened her repertoire of colors and invokes the new wave aesthetic of her youth in blue-black colors. A portrait of a woman with eyes facing the ground starkly contrasts the preceding motives of empty spaces. Again, there's the connection to the photographer's past and vita – the woman infront of the camera is the woman behind the camera's alter ego.

Birgit Krause studied photography at the Ostkreuz school with Sibylle Bergemann and worked closely with Arno Fischer, a legendary GDR photographer who recently passed away. “Unwillkürliche Erinnerungen” is the artist's first single exhibition. It will be shown at the exp12 gallery until November 6.

(obu)