Breadth of Vision: Homage to Erik Satie, 2006, Photograph mounted on aluminium and framed with engraved glass
Elina Brotherus often chooses to turn her back – rather than her face – towards the camera. Here the gesture is deliberately evocative of the figures depicted by the German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich. Intensely autobiographical in her approach Brotherus frequently uses her own image throughout Large de Vue: Hommage à Erik Satie [Breadth of Vision: Homage to Erik Satie, 2006], as she has done since the Nineties.
As so often with Arter exhibitions, music as well as art history plays its role in this show: Each of the 45 northern landscapes and self-portraits is paired with the unconventional playing instructions that French composer Erik Satie added to the musical scores of his Aperçus désagréables [Unpleasant Glimpses, 1908–1912]. Engraved on the framing glasses, are Satie’s frankly conceptual hints: Large de vue [Breadth of vision], De coin [From the corner], Visible, Regardez [Look] and En dehors [Outside].
The show also includes a selection of her more recent video works, including Chromatic Scale and Musical Piece, and a work entitled Wind Music. In them Brotherus collaborates with contemporary composer Max Savikangas to combine visual data with sound.
Breadth of Vision: Homage to Erik Satie, 2006, Photograph mounted on aluminium and framed with engraved glass
I Sometimes Imagine I’m a Fish with Legs
Issue 66, December 2023
Turkey’s Centenary Issue
