Andrea Freiberger

Leben eben

Opening: Donnerstag, 22. November 2012, 19.00 Uhr
Exhibition Dates: 23. November – 21. Dezember 2012

Vienna Gallery Weekend:
23. bis 25. November 2012
Fr 23. 11. 2012, 10.00 – 21.00
Sa 24. 11. 2012, 10.00 – 19.00
So 25. 11. 2012, 10.00 – 19.00

Austrian artist Andrea Freiberger, born 1957 in Scheibbs, is showing her latest body of work "Leben eben" ("Just Life") in the course of this year’s edition of Eyes On – European Month of Photography. Freiberger, who developed her formal language within the medium of collage, consequently transports her technique into photographs. She uses the camera like she would a pair of scissors to acquire the basic material for her pieces.

She frees the images she takes from their original context and puts them together anew using digital tools. Berthold Ecker writes about Freiberger’s photographic process, "For Freiberger, the camera is a new tool to fuse the events she finds in our world together to shape new phenomena, and stays true to her own creative impetus without using scissors and Uhu."

"Hinter dem Glas, im Spiegel" ("Behind the Glass, in the mirror") is the title for a body of photographs depicting mannequins reflected in the windows of shops on the other side of the street: Empty faces, caught in architecture, domestic surroundings or social restraints – in the golden cage of convenience and convention. The second reflection is a digital manipulation, which adds another layer of meaning. It’s no coincidence that the forms this manipulation generates remind us of wounds and/or phallic symbols.

Freiberger combines these pieces with another series of hers: "Sanktuarien". For these pieces, the artist chooses sections of her mannequin-images and mirrors them yet again. This produces a reduction to the fundamental feminine – desire as well as self-determination.

The artist has also created an installation in the form of a middle-class living room. The basis of the piece is a single photo, which is mirrored and endlessly repeated, covering every surface: "Home Sweet Home". Just life!