I created the series The Quiet of Dissolution, for example, because I was fascinated by the media’s depiction of disasters, both visually and verbally, and what it means for our understanding of ourselves and what surrounds us. Also, to explore where the borders are – where does ‘we’ end and where does ‘the other’ begin –, the equating of culture and order as well as of nature and chaos.
In the religious undertones and the anthropomorphization of nature, with the presentation of endless repetitions of amateur footage feeding into the ridiculous perception of nature as a raging, avenging being that strikes back as an opponent who needs to be restrained. The fascination for that which appears threatening and outside of our control despite the intensifying human influences on nature and consequently of natural catastrophes. Once the immediate danger has passed, it is followed by a comparably irrational repression, an almost complete ignorance of the presence of nature and possible risks.
It is this ambivalence and the important role that images play in its creation that interested me. All images of The Quiet of Dissolution are based on sets I built to create iconographic depictions of disasters, frozen images of the unforeseen, sudden and overwhelming; large-sized photographs that pretend authenticity and question it through the control and order of the chaos in the image, that reconstruct mystification only to break it down, once doubt in the image sets in.