Part V_Fantasy and Fiction

Works in the Exhibition | Interview



James Casebere: La Alberca, 2005/2006
Photo: courtesy Goetz Collection

Works in the Exhibition

Pink Hallway #2, 2000, Digital chromogenic print, mounted on aluminium
Four Flooded Arches from Right with Fog, 1999, Digital chromogenic print, mounted on aluminium
La Alberca, 2005/2006, Digital chromogenic print, mounted on aluminium
Toppled Desks, 1997, Digital chromogenic print, mounted on aluminium



Interview

Jan Seewald: Your photographs are equivocal and mysterious, especially for a viewer who encounters them for the first time. The selection in our current exhibition mostly comprises photographs which seem to show empty halls or flooded tunnels of old buildings. But these pictures are not what they seem to be at first; they are photographs of complex models, constructed and then sometimes dramatically lit or flooded before they are photographed. Are the models small-scale reproductions of 'real' rooms, or are they the products of your imagination?
James Casebere: They are usually based on real rooms or spaces. Sometimes they are quite realistic and do not veer from an accurate representation of the source, but at other times I embellish or alter the original to the point of being unrecognizable.
Jan Seewald: For the ordinary viewer the photographs seem to lack a reliable kind of reference, be it cultural, temporal or geographical. They are sometimes dramatic, but quite anonymous. Are they based on particular places, as the titles often suggest?
James Casebere: While they may look anonymous, let me repeat, they are almost always based on a specific place and have a cultural, or historical reference that is important to me. It's this reference that motivates me to create the work in the first place.

Text excerpt »Photography is only a part of what I do« - A Conversation via E-mail with James Casebere, August 2006 (Author: Jan Seewald), Exhibition Catalogue Imagination Becomes Reality Part V_Fantasy and Fiction