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  Fragment from an interview with Dr. Ute Riese for the catalogue of the exhibition: "Telescopium" Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven (Germany), May 2000

UR
Since the late 90’s,“the interior” has been a constant point of departure for your works. You are fascinated by this genre, which looks back on a extremely long tradition in the history of painting. What do you see as the significance of this genre in the present ?


WB
The interior is a territory I share with the viewer, a common ground. For me the advantage of working with such recognizable images is that the images are not solely bound to the art-world, the interior is a place we are familiar with and experience daily. The “interior “is also an “all time genre” in western art that makes it possible for an artist to visualize a large range
of thoughts and issues. It is a tool that helps construct an image of reality, just like a portrait or a landscape. Its as close to us as the clothes we wear.

UR
Your painted interiors are often reminicent of the undercooled and stages quality of interior decoration catalogues or home-and-garden type magazines. The persons you place and allow to act in these rooms usually look like figures from catalogues as well, but in contrast to the usual clichés of happines and harmony, the are depicted in strange, sometimes bizarre actions and constellations...


WB
I collect the motifs for the paintings from commercial catalogues and brochures of which I have a lare collection: children, woman, men, stairs,beds, plants etc.etc. everything I need to work from.
I never have the intention of making “bizarre” or exotic pictures because there is no point in competing with all the really bizarre movies, pictures, stories and news-items which surround us everyday.
Instead of bizarre I would prefer the word “suspenseful” a more subtle and somewhat uncanny word depicting a stae of feeling of exited or anxious uncertainty about what may happen or is happening.
The controlled environment becomes enigmatic and ambiguous. It is not some thing I really seek though, it is not my goal, to make uncanny or suspensful pictures. Its just something that always happens.

UR
But you consciously use irrationality, obscurity to break open your very clear, precisely constructed pictorial worlds. Does the irrational have a threatening quality for you?


WB
That is hard to answer. The problem is to decide what is rational and what is not. I find it hard to draw a line. If you would call the “irrational” that which is beyond our control, that which is not definable, that which has no solid form, that which ecapes interpretation and routines etc...It might appear as threatenig but its aso fascinating and revitalizing. For “that” you van fill in many small and large subjects but will be and maybe art should be part of “that”.
Another thing is , that I sometimes get hit by the (visual)clarity of the world around me and how in the same moment this is undermined by my lack of understanding it. It is a strage contradicion, for me this inabillity is one of the driving forces for making images. Its a blinding clarity.

UR
Not only the figural constellations have a narrative character, but also the details, due to the way in which you place them into the scenes. Examples are the bouquet of lilies looming horizontally into the picture, a freestanding group of rustic stools inserted into another, a bulgy bannister. Yet the narrative element brought about by this manner of arranging the objects seems to lead a life of its own, as distinct from that of figural constellations. I find this layering of narrative levels fascinating...


WB
All the elements in my paintings are painted and treated in the same way. No part is more important than another and a flower appears to be made from the same material as a jacket or a hand. We are not used to this way of perceiving and I have noticed that this makes people uncomfortable. The narrative aspect in these works is important.
It's not me however, who is telling a story but I rather create the possibility for the viewer to create his own story. Therefore the work should have a maximal openness. That is the reason why I use such undramatic, commonplace objects and people in my paintings. A painting contains many stories...