Susanne Ruembeli, 2006
Katalogtext art' fab, woman of europe
They got horses
Looking at Katrin Plavcak’s pictures feels as if one is being immersed into the middle of a bewildering movie or an enthralling book. The artist shows strange incidents, often overlooked minutes of change or metamorphosis and depicts the moment just before or right after such a suspenseful climax. Her inspiration comes from fiction, movies, newspapers and personal photographs, from which she picks out single scenes or pictures and transfers them into thrilling, narrative stills.
Plavcak never intends to imitate the original exactly; her emphasis clearly lies on immediacy and directness both in the painting process and in the expression. Focusing on the main idea is most important for her and can involve leaving blank spaces on the canvas or vaguely outlining the background.
Ordinary impressions such as a crowded beach, an urban construction site or a group of playing children appear subtly suspenseful in Plavcak’s paintings. Her interventions consist of showing the objects under unusual light conditions, as strong under- and over-expositions or adding unidentifiable objects such as a floating black hole. Additionally, she applies abstract elements like stripes across the whole painting, which further enhances the distance between viewer and subject. Overall, the resulting expressions are bewildering, eerie and always suspenseful.
THEY GOT HORSES (2004) belongs to a series of pictures in which Plavcak engaged with the appearance of extraterrestrial life. After seeing many science-fiction films she kept herself wondering why the aliens always appeared so different from the human beings: What would happen if they actually looked like us? And what if their world was even better than ours? At first sight the world of the Plavcak aliens is like a fairytale: A golden curricle quietly floats over a sparkling snow field, white embellished horses draw the lavishly decorated coach, and a person enjoys gazing out into the beautiful black universe. Everything is nice and calm. The earth, in contrast, appears dark and gloomy, nothing like the beautiful pictures from outer space. At the same time, looking closer at the alien’s world leaves a bad aftertaste. Why does everything look so artificial? What is the person doing out there? Is he alone? He? She? Or it? Only one thing seems certain, the horses are horses – probably.