TROY BRAUNTUCH
2012-03-12Troy Brauntuch cuts up or crops the pictures he has sourced elsewhere. Eerily vague remains of an event are seen against a dark background, his preferred method being to transfer the cropped images to black cotton fabric using white Conté crayons. The works often look like a combination of painting and photography and at first sight one might assume they are dark-toned monochrome pictures. Gradually, on closer study, one can distinguish specific motifs as they emerge out of a spectrum of grays in the almost velvety black picture ground: a woman wearing niqab, her face seen underneath a transparent map of Florida; a window display of variously arranged gloves; soldiers in close combat; or an elegant, black-and-white dotted coat.
Except for works that reference violence or stills from thrillers, most of Brauntuch’s pictures – especially the photographs – are unspectacular and slow to reveal their surprisingly mysterious and at times understated subject matter. Having chosen to devote himself to the visual arts, the artist simultaneously draws attention to what a picture does not contain, thereby destabilizing the relationship between pictures and their alleged meaning. He accentuates that relationship by switching back and forth between personal photographs and found images that have been made public.
Exhibition runs through to April 21th, 2012
Mai 36 Galerie
Rämistrasse 37
CH-8001 Zurich
Switzerland
