
International Art | Sculpture
Satyr with wineskin cast 19th century
after UNKNOWN ROMAN
Beat Streuli engages with the longstanding tradition of works that reflect urban life, its energy, its speed and its crowds. He presents intimate portraits taken within a public context, offering open-ended narratives and a poignant examination of public identity and glimpsed inner life.
Employing a serial, almost documentary style in his work, Streuli plays on contradictions and polarities such as the natural and the stylised, documentary and fiction, public and private. Printed at a larger-than-life scale, his photographs refer to the format of public advertising but, rather than promoting consumer products, he memorialises the fleeting moments of everyday life. Working with a telephoto lens, Streuli captures his subjects without confronting them and, in doing so, the supposed privacy and anonymity of individuals in a crowd is shown to be violable. Superficial judgements and personal histories projected by viewers on the individuals depicted create an intimate space.
View related library resources