Astrid Klein
May 18–July 29, 2006
Munich
Monika Sprüth Philomene Magers, Munich proudly present works of Astrid Klein. The exhibition, which covers works from the late 1970s and the 1980s, includes photographic, sculptural and installation work.
Photography has played a key role in Astrid Klein’s œuvre since the mid 1970s. Her approach to photography differs from the traditional documentary use of the medium: Astrid Klein uses photographic material taken from film, TV, advertising and journalistic texts, which she manipulates. She inverts colours, layers images, adds fragments of texts to the images or overexposures them.
Astrid Klein…The real pictures have disappeared and have left their original function by assembling the negatives, blowing up, overlapping and using multiple exposures. Furthermore, she adds text fragments. For the works from the 70's Astrid Klein transfers the pictoral material to photopaper, then to canvas and covers them with zinc-white paint. In doing this, the surfaces of her works appear more cooler and harder.
Astrid Klein attempts to eliminate the viewers’ possibility to recognize familiar images: in doing this, she questions the viewers' perception. The observer, who is looking for reference points and memories in his perception process automatically, is led astray by believing to have recognized the strap material, for example a filmstill. Because the pictorial material isn't assigned to any specific event, it is no longer fixated on his origin but is a timeless picture fragment.