Barbara Visser (1966)
Barbara Visser's work has been described as 'reality hacking.'* Like a hacker gets into a computer system through a 'backdoor' to alter data, Visser slips through the labyrinths and nets that make up reality, using photography and film media that often appear to record that reality.** But using these media, Visser shows that they are extremely well-suited for reconstructing reality as well. Her photos, videos and installations set viewers off their familiar footing.
Recurring themes in Visser's work are alternate realities and original-and-copy.*** She toys with expectations and values. In one work, she destroyed some selected pieces of design furniture and recorded the results in photographs, shaking up our conception of beauty and deconstructing (literally and figuratively) the function and status embodied by the object of luxury furniture. Visser taps into multiple layers of meaning within a single image. Another recurring theme in her oeuvre is the concept of time and place. In another series, the artist made a complete documentation of an elderly woman's home in dozens of slides and interviews. Visser places personal history within the history of design and women's emancipation in the 20th century, and her film Philippa goes even further back in time. Barbara Visser was awarded the Dr. A.H. Heinekenprijs in 2008.
* R. Pontzen, ‘Afgrijzen en schoonheid: Glossy nieuwsbeelden van Barbara Visser en Juul Hondius’, Vrij Nederland, 03.08.2002, p. 86
** V. Baar, ‘Barbara Visser’, unlocked # 02 rabo kunstcollectie, Eindhoven 2005, p. 104
*** www.knaw.nl, press release: ‘Dr. A.H. Heinekenprijs voor de Kunst 2008 voor Barbara Visser’, 24.04.2008
