Marianne Mueller: The Proper Ornaments
24 March–18 April 2009, Brussels
COMBINE # 13
1529/11, Vierfüsser, 2004, Barytabzug - 1290/36, Pair of legs, ganz (Der Schläfer), 2000, Barytabzug
The archivist anti photography
Marianne Müller is obsessive in capturing the irrelevant moment. the moment any traditional photographer tries to avoid at all cost. she captures the light when its poorly lit. the body when it looks haggard and damaged. the lighting fixture and interior elements of a building or space when they have been bruised by time and decay. the pedestrian of hum drum life captured from a distance that is neither committed to focusing on a subject in closeup or at a distance relative to a larger landscape. her video work, captures the daily existence of places far away and close to home, devoid of any special or particular happening. In her video work muller displaces time and splices the equivalent space of two millimetres of time together. the result of the relationship between the images in the video work is not the juxtaposition but rather the intimate banality of everyday moments as the pass over and over and over again within seperate frames lying next to each other. the result is simply beautiful and elegant. the videographer who does not try, the photographer who does not photograph. the grace of the work is not the moment it is the movement: effortless yet precise.
COMBINE # 44
1132/30. Schatten St. Paul, 1999, C-Print - 1172/12, Ärmelprobe,1999, C-Print
Mueller boxes images together and then creates work, like the image boxes or the newspaper project, where the viewer can box her images together in whatever order so pleases the viewer. the images are thus constantly edited and reorganized by the participant who acts like a voyeur or a photo editor, drawn in by images that are really not interesting within themselves but act as a distinct practise of strict formalism in Muller's work. Muller establishes the rules of engagement silently and strongly. a box, hand made and perfect, houses double paned glass photographs, that are heavy to the hand. Muller's photographs are not framed when exhibited and are hung with military precision demanding that these images are not so as much important for what they are of but rather for what they are not. muller lets you play but she sets the ground rules, you are firmly in her grasp and even more firmly in her world. you feel her world enter you as you it. Muller's power to express reminds us of our own ability to archive and edit our own lives' imagery if only we had the discipline and the soft and supple hand of an acrobat to fly through the air as if without any effort.
Stefan Simchowitz, 2009
