Uta Eisenreich

Uta Eisenreich, Network (Teamwork), 2002

Kyle’s post at Arkitip about Maurice Scheltens triggered a happy memory of seeing photographer Uta Eisenreich’s work for the first time. Since the last time I checked she’s apparently designed a sweet website that’s structured like a pin-up board. Uta sets up conceptual situations often based on meticulously contrived (though loosely executed) human interaction, and then photographs the results. Her projects include kidnapping a group of foreign business travelers in a small bus with darkened windows, creating a spatial representation of a computer desktop, directing incoming cars to park chromatically, and participating in breakdancing duels where instead of breakdancing, she and her opponent get in the circle and create towering arrangements of ordinary objects, trying to outdo each other in height and beauty. That performance is called Close to the Edge.

Some of my favorite photographs of hers are from a series called Network (Teamwork) in which she creates physical sociograms by asking kids questions about each other and mapping the connections. Which 3 kids would you invite to your birthday? Who do you know least well in your class? These and other “schoolyard mandalas” the kids created are an interesting take on the visual language of education and schools. I imagine Steven Willats would enjoy them too.