Sisyphus
In Greek mythology, Sisyphus tricked Death by trapping Thanatos in chains. Once Thanatos was bound by chains, no one died on Earth, this is why Sisyphus was punished to roll an enormous rock up a hill, only to watch it come back to hit him, repeating this action for eternity.
How we used to think about the world is changing radically every day. Religion is replaced by science, we are flooded by images every day, we want instant access to knowledge. Photography as a medium has the ability to capture everything that’s in front of the camera, the machinery sees even what the human eye is not capable of.
How we used to think about the world is changing radically every day. Religion is replaced by science, we are flooded by images every day, we want instant access to knowledge. Photography as a medium has the ability to capture everything that’s in front of the camera, the machinery sees even what the human eye is not capable of.
We can see universes, stars exploding, microscopic worlds, atom bomb detonation with the safety of the far distance. Through these images, we think we can get closer to understand how the world is functioning without ever experiencing or seeing it through our own eyes.
In series Sisyphus, I constructed an imaginary laboratory where it’s up to the reader to decide where the line lies between fiction and reality without any scientific explanation.
In series Sisyphus, I constructed an imaginary laboratory where it’s up to the reader to decide where the line lies between fiction and reality without any scientific explanation.
Geibl explores our reliance on science through a series of images that reveal our fascination with scientific objects – inanimate tools – that we use to help us determine major truths about human nature. The presence of human beings is insinuated, but never made fully obvious by incorporating the faces or full bodies within the environments she constructs.
Many of the images in Sisyphus are fabricated scenarios, and possess an intense, cinematic atmosphere that makes their drama even more appealing.
Essay by Cat Lachowskyj
Essay by Cat Lachowskyj
Sisyphus Zine
Published by Global Blur Books→
Published by Global Blur Books→
For photographer Kata Geibl, this cyclical myth acts as a metaphor for the topic explored in her series of the same name. Sisyphus is a photographic project that commentates on our incessant obsession with science – a discourse that regularly opens up new questions rather than conclusive answers – a hydra with multiplying heads that cannot ever be fully defeated or conquered.
While some images hint at a human presence, depicting their hands working through equations or interacting with particular substances, most of the images place human invention at centre stage, so that our manmade tools act as the protagonists in the story.
Essay by Cat Lachowskyj
Essay by Cat Lachowskyj
Sisyphus Zine
Published by Global Blur Books→
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Sisyphus Zine
Published by Global Blur Books→
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Published by Global Blur Books→
Your work focuses on humanity, our collective memories and the way mankind interacts with objects. There are, however, barely any people in your images. Why is that?
I like to think that my work questions how we form our understanding of reality. When there’s a human face, or even a group of people in an image, we are immediately drawn to it. We try to determine their personas, and so the meaning of the image becomes subverted. I try to show the world as a compley structure that goes beyond the individual, focusing instead on the man-made environment.
The space that we find ourselves in and the objects that we create reveal more about the human race than an individual ever could.
Interview in Unseen Magazin, Issue 5
The space that we find ourselves in and the objects that we create reveal more about the human race than an individual ever could.
Interview in Unseen Magazin, Issue 5
Could you elaborate on the idea of an ‘imaginary laboratory’?
The imaginary basis of the project is that an event took place that had a major impact on humanity, which only a select group of people experienced. The work makes use of two kinds of distinct imagery.
For the first, I worked on experiments in collaboration with physicists at a university in Budapedt - during the process, I added and changed certain elements in the space.
The remaining images are entirely of my own making, inspired by my fascination with imagery from the Space Race and the Cold War - periods when scientific achievement was used primarily as a weapon.
My goal was to create something timeless, leaving viewers unsure as to which decade the pictures come from, allowing their imagination to run wild.
Interview in Unseen Magazin, Issue 5
For the first, I worked on experiments in collaboration with physicists at a university in Budapedt - during the process, I added and changed certain elements in the space.
The remaining images are entirely of my own making, inspired by my fascination with imagery from the Space Race and the Cold War - periods when scientific achievement was used primarily as a weapon.
My goal was to create something timeless, leaving viewers unsure as to which decade the pictures come from, allowing their imagination to run wild.
Interview in Unseen Magazin, Issue 5
Sisyphus Zine
Published by Global Blur Books→
