 Opening reception: Sat, 26 April, 4 pm.
The artist will be present at the reception.
Galerie Thomas Zander is pleased to present the artist Andrea Geyer for the first time in their current exhibition featuring works from her series "SPIRAL LANDS / CHAPTER 1”. The work has previously been on view at documenta 12 and in the exhibition "The past never changes" at Galerie Hohenlohe in Vienna.
The conceptual image/text work "Spiral Lands“ writes a photographic and textual historiography. The central question it addresses is the relation of identity and land in North America. At the example of the Southwest the artist investigates the role of photography in the appropriation of the North American continent. With her camera, Andrea Geyer travels the American Southwest and with historical sensibility she documents not only the land, but also the internalized vantage point of western historiography in impressive landscape photographs. "Spiral Lands" focuses on one of the longest struggles for social justice in North America: the dispossession of lands from Native Americans and their struggle for their rights and the return of their land. In her work, Andrea Geyer renders the desire for social justice visible and gives it a museum presence.
„Spiral Lands / Chapter 1“ consists of 19 frames, each combining either two or three black and white photographs with a text. Partly paired in double-takes of the same landscape they recall the tradition of stereoscopy in American landscape photography. Geyer employs the form of doubling to draw attention to the fact that a point of view and narrative are never singular, but always need to be read in relation to their author and context. The text, however, punctuates the classic pastoral idyll: Geyer’s own poetic observations, which resemble diary entries, reflect the impressions and perspective of a fictional character who travels and documents the land between 1850 and 2007. The artist interweaves these comments with researched passages, quotations from treaties, academic texts or philosophical treatises. As a basis for her research, Geyer mainly draws on works by Native American scholars and writers, addressing topics like identity, contemporary history and colonization as well as exploitation, violence and expulsion.
Andrea Geyer, born in 1971, lives and works in New York City (since 1997) and in her hometown Freiburg. After completing her studies in photography and film design at University of Applied Sciences Bielefeld and receiving a diploma from the Academy of Fine Arts Braunschweig, the artist participated in the Whitney Independent Study Program in New York in 1999/2000. Since 1994 Andrea Geyer has presented her work in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Europe and the U.S.A. Especially her contribution to documenta 12 last year received much attention. In 2008, her work will be on view at Tate Modern L2 Gallery in London, among other venues.
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