Black Raven Blues / KARASU BLUES ・カラス ブルース
Agnes Prammer
2015 - 2020
Artist Statement
Black Raven Blues / KARASU BLUES ・カラス ブルース Since my artist residency in Tokyo in 2015/16, I have been working on the topic of family bonds – and how it relates to the use of modern media. “Black Raven Blues” combines photographs from five different series: “Happiness is here”, Japan: Media use of families at Disneyland Tokyo / “they will have been so beautiful”, Tokyo: Street gardens in Tokyo / “swoon”, UK, Austria: Climate change, accountability / “Utopia”, Austria: Motherhood / “Untitled”, Austria: My personal family, corona lock-down. Some photographs are made with digital photography, others with a 150 year old photographic technique on glass plates (wetplates). I would propose to show some digital photos on digital screens. Like that the whole history of photography is condensed itself into one series. Together they start a new narrative. It is about connection, silence, love, withdrawal, caring, stillness, old values and modern media.
What intrigues me about Japanese everyday life are the possibilities that lie in moments of contradiction. For example, even though many of Tokyo’s streets are surprisingly empty, quiet and clean, little street gardens or private chairs at bus stops are not perceived as disruptive by residents or removed by the government. Both aspects are simultaneously possible: the “neat” and the “chaotic”. They are not seen as opposites and don’t contradict each other, but rather coexist with each other. In “Black Raven Blues” I am working with this duality within the topic of family and closeness.
Artist Bio
Agnes Prammer (1984, Austria) studied commercial photography and communications design. Afterwards she studied Fine Art at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Since 2016 she teaches photography in Vienna. She works with photography, sculpture and artist books. Her artistic practice is at the border of documentary and staged (often self-staged) photography. Awards (selection) 2019 Tenjinyama Artist residency, Sapparo 2016 Startstipendium, Arts and Culture Division of the Federal Chancellery of Austria 2015 Tokyo 3-months artist residency, Arts and Culture Division of the Federal Chancellery of Austria, Tokyo 2013 Biennale Giovani Monza Award, Monza 2012 Printed Matter Award, New York