CLAY KETTER

Two works from the Gulf Coast Slabs series (2007), show traces of homes swept away by Hurricane Katrina that hit the American Gulf Coast in 2006. They too are unmanipulated photographic records. However, the Gulf Coast Slabs further develop Ketter’s aesthetic somewhere between abstraction and realism or even fake ready-mades. Indeed, these traces of architecture are morally challenging as we approach them head-on.

A large print from the Madre Veduta series completes the installation in the front space. This carefully arranged and manipulated image is based on photographs the artist took in Naples. The digital assemblage reveals layers of commentary, not least on the romantic illusion of decaying renaissance architecture. This false and idealised image plays with our perception and deceives us with its grotesque beauty while suggesting a familiarity that appears to veil a sinister circumstance.

A group of Tract (2010) series works shown in the office comment on the recent trend of living in segregated gated communities. Compiled from high-resolution satellite images, stitched together using CGI technology, Ketter depicts a dystopian aerial view of gated communities. Concentrically arranged, these fantasies unfold around shopping-malls and country-clubs. In this body of work, the artist retreats from a close-up depiction and proposes a wide-angle view of western societies.

1 - Magnus af Petersens, Clay Ketter: Signs of Life, 2009