Carol Müller
The main roots of my artistic production is photography in all historical or digital shapes. However, my production is polymorphous and also encompasses drawing as well as installation and new media (video, multimedia installation). Obsessively bound to painting and its synthetic expression, my path as a visual artist has developed in dialogue with numerous other disciplines.
The main topic is the question of landscape. Space, plotted in two or three dimensions, has served as a stage to which I invite the raw memory of perceptions. My work is always developed alongside the experience of a physical landscape.
My photographic work is based on possible trajectories in reality. The question of physical movement, geographic orientation and time disorientation are key elements of my work as well as the hidden memories of the location.
Selected Projects:
Anna, photographic serie and book – arriving in Norway by the sea on board of a containership
In May 2008, I stepped aboard Anna, a 180-metre merchant ship. Casting off from Hamburg, our crew sailed along the coast of Denmark to Alesund. I wanted to arrive to Norway by the sea, sharing the experience of its’ native people, the Vikings, who were forced to take to the water in order to withstand this country’s hostile natural habitat. I was the only passenger aboard Anna, and was accompanied by 16 sailors, mostly from countries of the former communist bloc. A container ship runs like a factory, operating 24/7. Following the requirements of Anna’s freight deliveries, we docked for a few hours in industrial ports along the way. The pace of life, and sailors’ sleep patterns, are dictated by the ship’s progress and commercial mission. For a passenger, there is nothing to do. Just watch. These photographs are a study of the tension in this watching, a study of the landscape.
I stayed a month in Alvik, a village of 700 inhabitants perched on the edge of the Hardanger Fjord, 100km from Bergen, Norway. It was winter – there was much rain, a little snow. I became fascinated by the daily variations in the landscape’s primary elements of rock, sky, and sea. From one moment to the next the weather’s whims brought out a whole new visual spectrum, sometimes minimal, sometimes complex, making rock liquid, water solid or sky monumental. Each new day the dreamlike images were re-invented, abandoned by humankind. I tried to capture the timelessness of these majestic mutations. I concentrated on a relatively small portion of the landscape so that the full effect of the variations could be felt. At the heart of overreaching cosmic rythms, I wanted to create miniature portraits of frozen time.
Alvik, photographic serie – climatical miniatures in the fjord Hardenger Norway inspired by the novel of Ibsen Lady from the sea
Kronstadt-undertow, video installation about the city of Kronstadt (Russia)
With the « Kronstadt Undertow » piece, I tried to capture both the present and the memory of the landscape. I committed myself to translating the feeling of being in a forgotten space, glorious in its past but today on the verge of collapse. I chose to feature two trivial objects: gutters and cars, so that they might tell the story of their own ability to survival.
The gutters are the fixed object. I likened them to harmless cannons, vertically set in the city. They are its civilian organs, arteries that contract and dilate, pouring out their torrents of water according to seasonal fluctuations. Repainted, rusted, twisted, restored, they bear witness to the revivals of Kronstadt. I wanted to create pure lines, to give an architectural element to my piece.
The cars movies are the mobile element. I filmed old Ladas, wrecks rolling straight from the Soviet past. Though once very popular, today they are symbolic survivors who have often devolved to the role of clandestine taxi. Clinging to the landscape, they turn in a loop, in a story that has lost its direction.
Requiem for Cesis, photographic serie and slide show about a hidden jews memorial (Latvia)
Hahmajärvi, video (Finland)