Uta Barth (B. 1958)

‘A passage in a John Berger novel that’s stuck with me for twenty years about looking at a glass of lilacs on a mantel. He’s puzzling out what he’s seeing: the light and reflection in a mirror, trying to figure out an illusion and sorting it out step by step. The flower series was a bit scary. It’s the first body of work in 15 years with a central subject and it’s not just any subject, but a completely clichéd and culturally trampled one. To me the images are about light and time. They’re some of the slowest images I’ve ever made. Hopefully, no one will believe them to be a reverie about flowers.’
UTA BARTH