Untitled - lorch + seidel contemporary

20.08.2012
www.berlin-artparasites.com
PRESSESPIEGEL 2012
MYSTERIOUS SPACES DE
Berlin Art Parasites online
Interview: Featured Preview Berlin Artist Karen Irmer
MYSTERIOUS SPACES
Meet globe-trotting Preview Berlin Art Fair artist Karen Irmer. Her ghostly photographs are
sure to peak your interest and lead you to unknown places!
The time is drawing near. That’s right, it’s almost Berlin Art Week, and we’re getting
excited! So, because we can’t wait and we know you can’t either, we’ve brought you an
interview with Karen Irmer, one of the very special artists exhibiting at Preview Berlin Art
Fair at Tempelhof Airport. Ms. Irmer is associated with the gallery Zweigstelle Berlin at the
Fair, but unfortunately won‘t be in Berlin during Preview Berlin since she’s currently doing
a residency in Omaha, Nebraska, but we had the chance to catch up with her nonetheless,
thanks to some quite handy internet techonology!
If you haven’t seen Irmer’s atmospheric photographs yet, you can check her work out here.
We hope you enjoy the eerie landscapes and quiet spaces as much as we do. And now, the
woman behind the art:
BAPS: What are the themes you explore in your work?
KI: My work is all about perception. Each person perceives reality in a different way. We are
sometimes experiencing one and the same incident quite differently as if it wouldn‘t have
been the same event. Things change through different eyes and during the remembering
process – but the changes are subtle and invisible, so that we don‘t realize it ourselves. I
am interested in the border between reality and veritableness.
BAPS: Your artwork uses a lot of greys and whites. Why do you work mostly with these
colors in particular?
KI: I want to create a world that is parallel to the existing one. By using only shades of
grey and very subtle colors the images are drifting away from reality and creating their own
trueness. I am interested in giving rise to an atmosphere of dignity and majesty, not an
„effigy“ of reality. And I am not at all attracted to special-effects or high-end-photography
either. That‘s not what art should be about. I want to attract an audience emotionally.
BAPS: What is your work process like? Do you do a lot of planning or do you work
spontaneously?
KI: My planning consists in the conception of how to arrange the images to get a coherent
setting. The pictures themselves are taken in a very spontaneous way during trips in nature
or somewhere outside. You can‘t plan magic moments, you have to catch them at the right
second.
BAPS: What made you decide to become an artist?
KI: It wasn‘t a decision. I think I was always attracted by small, and in a way – at least in
the first glance – unimportant things and observations. And I wanted to do something that
is connected to my person, something life affirming.
[...]
Tempelhof Airport Preview Berlin Art Fair. September 13th - 16th 2012