Claudia Butz "She Works Hard for the Money"
Figureworks
This event has ended.
After a trip to the Netherlands in 2008, Claudia Butz began working on a series of paintings from the vibrant window displays found in Amsterdam's red light district (De Wallen). It seems appropriate that one of the "oldest professions" is actually in the city's most historic neighborhoods. Since prostitution is legal in the Netherlands, working girls rent small rooms with large windows along the canals and side streets to flirt under the glow of what are literally red lights.
Claudia filmed these various windows with her Super 8mm camera. Interested in the flow and movement captured by the camera, she chooses images that play with shapes, objects and figures like puzzle pieces until the composition reveals itself, falls into place and visually holds perfectly together. By using the specific quality of the movie and translating it into the aesthetic of painting, Claudia creates hazy visions and misty views which must be investigated and discovered like recollections of a dream.
Additionally, Claudia chose to paint this provocative series in shades of blue, rather than an obvious red palette, to comment on the coldness and harshness of her subjects in their line of work.
Media
Schedule
from January 14, 2011 to March 07, 2011
Opening Reception on 2011-01-14 from 18:00 to 21:00