DURABILITY

Since 1998, the artist has been working in the “Peter Piller Archive” on the re-interpretation and re-presentation of photos and picture archives which had been previously published in other contexts. For his art work, he uses pictures from a commercial aerial-photo archive in addition to images from regional newspapers, pictures from the internet or from the property of a Dutch company newspaper. Peter Piller then allocates the different material to his personal grouping systems and categories. Supplemented by groups of drawings (“office drawings”, “peripheral walks”) he finally confronts these images in multi-surface wall-installations and in artist’s books with the conventions of art viewing. With careful observation and subtle humor, Piller questions in this way the potential of media images as well as the possibilities and limits of photography and conceptual art.

Using diverse pictures stemming from private and public origins, Peter Piller compiled a portrait of the small provincial community of Hellendorn-Nijverdaal, which had remained unknown to him until then. The archive of the photographer of a small company’s newspaper played an important role. For Durability, from 15,000 negatives, Peter Piller selected 68, which probably arose by chance or accident. This way, the artist let a picture of the everyday life in a textile company emerge, like a negative consisting of interim spaces and accidental pictures, it extends beyond the company newspaper’s official representation.

Exhibition organised in collaboration with Frehrking Wiesehöfer gallery, Köln.