Innenschau – ein Experiment

Der Naturwissenschafter sucht mit seinen Methoden nach  Antworten auf seine Fragen, der Künstler tut es ebenso. Gabriele Seethaler ist in beiden Disziplinen zuhause, der exakten  Welt der Naturwissenschaft und der intuitiv strukturieten, nicht berechenbaren Welt der Kunst.

Eine zentrale Frage im Leben jedes Menschen lautet "Wer bin ich?". Wodurch unterscheide ich mich von anderen, worin besteht meine Individualität? Michel Foucault gibt uns die Empfehlung "Wir müssen uns wie ein Kunstwerk begründen, herstellen und anordnen". Das führt in weiterer Konsequenz zur "Ästhetik der Existenz" und damit zu Lebenskunst.

Gabriele Seethalers konkretes Dasein ist Schauplatz und Ausdrucksmittel, sie selbst ist das Medium ihrer künstlerischen Gestaltung. Die ersten Selbstporträts entstanden spielerisch in der Natur, fernab von Labor und Wissenschaft. Aus dem Zufallsprinzip entwickelten sich neue Kombinationen. In der speziellen Anwendung der Kamera durch Auflösung und Erweiterung der sichtbaren Außenwelt zeigte sich in einem verlängerten Wahrheitsmoment das "zweite Gesicht" der Gabriele Seethaler. Aus der experimentellen Selbsterkundung wird Selbsterfindung.

Mit dieser neu gewonnenen Innenschau geht sie konsequent und wissenschaftlich an ihre künstlerische Arbeit heran. Ihre Neudefinition des klassischen Begriffs des Selbstporträts sprengt die Grenzen der Fotografie und trägt zur Mystifizierung der Künstlerfigur sowie des Kunstwerkes bei. Im Spannungsfeld des ästhetischen Pluralismus der neunziger Jahre passiert das Neue durch Integration des eigenen Umfeldes, das Thema der Kunst ist das eigene Leben. Kreativität äußert sich bei Gabriele Seethaler als eine ganz bestimmte Form von Wahrnehmung der Realität, die sie in ihren Fotoarbeiten als den eigentlichen ästhetischen Moment inszeniert.

Das wird in der Serie "Metamorphosen" sichtbar, ebenso wie bei "Dualité", wo jede "Doppelgesichtigkeit" einen eigenen Charakter besitzt. Ihre künstlerische Praxis richtet sich an alles Vorhandene: Eine Truhe in einem Hotelzimmer, Hände, die das Gesicht bedecken, Natur. Grafische Elemente und Abstraktion entstehen durch Weglassen und Farbakzentuierung, bis die Struktur als Bauplan des bestimmten Gegenstandes erkennbar wird. Hier geht es der Naturwissenschaftlerin um das Herausfiltern der Ordnung eines Zellkernes, um die Suche nach dem organischen Aufbau.

Gabriele Seethaler definiert in ihren Arbeiten ein neues, individuelles Verhältnis zum (eigenen) Körper und befindet sich mit dieser Thematik und in der Art der künstlerischen Umsetzung in der Reihe der Neo Avantgardisten. Es geht um die künstlerische Tätigkeit, darum, das eigene Leben neu in die Hand zu nehmen, darum, den persönlichen Wahrnehmungen Gestalt zu verleihen.

Ulrike Guggenberger, Oberndorf, 1999.

Photography, Biology and Abstraction:

a convergence of images

Gabriele Seethaler, GABI, has been a scientific colleague and friend for more than ten years; we met first at a scientific conference near Toulon in the south of France.  Immediately, she impressed me with her enthusiasm for biology, her excitement for the research project she was pursuing and her determination to succeed in the competitive world of molecular and cellular biology.  At that time, although Gabi was still completing the experiments for her doctoral dissertation, she had already developed a scientific maturity and understanding that was far beyond her years.  Indeed, she was so enthusiastic about research that she decided to organize her own scientific conference the following year in a small village, Annaberg, not far from Salzburg.  This meeting now formally known as the "Annaberg Conference" was an immediate success.  Subsequently, Gabi, myself and another colleague Dr. Sharon Tooze, have been the co-organizers of this conference which has evolved into one of the major scientific meetings in Cell Biology held in Europe every two years.

After obtaining her doctorate, Gabi held a research position at the Austrian Academy of Science in Salzburg and during this time she spent a period in my own laboratory in New York where she investigated the mechanisms of how different types of proteins are sorted and organized in cells.  Her experimental skills, hard work and analytical ability were outstanding.  However, Gabi was searching for more than just the systematic and methodical analysis of the laboratory; she had already developed a passion for Art and photography in particular.  At every opportunity she could be found with her camera , taking a multitude of photographs in the laboratory, portraits of famous scientists, scenes at scientific symposia, in the street  photographing people, buildings, statues; everything excited her.  She has an insatiable appetite for exploration whether it be science or art; indeed Gabi has used her unique talents and training to meld these two disciplines into a novel and exciting whole.  Gabi had the inspiration and desire to use her scientific training to develop new techniques and approaches to the photographic image; the pictures in this collection attest to the success of her vision.

Biologists who study the structure and organization of cells often spend many hours, looking down a microscope probing the inner workings of the cell.  What they observe is a vast array of exquisite shapes, colors and structures. When tissues are prepared for microscopic examination and stained appropriately, the cells and components within them react with specific dyes.  The cell staining, their shape, number and arrangement gives a tissue its characteristic features.  The great cellular anatomists of the late nineteenth century appreciated that these patterns indicated specialized functions. In the last ten years, computer-imaging techniques have revolutionized how microscopes are used.  The combination of computers with new reagents that enable scientists to examine the localization of individual molecules inside cells, has generated images not seen previously.  Exquisite three-dimensional rotating shapes can be generated on a TV screen. Not only do the images provide important scientific information, they also have an artistic and aesthetic quality in their own right.  These pictures are spectacularly impressive.  Observing individual groups of molecules and the patterns they form within the cell often generates a seemingly random, abstract image which to the untrained eye may appear chaotic.  But this is not the case.  The structures are real, exciting and often beautiful; they hint at a greater whole and provide tantalizing insights into the fabric of life.  From apparent randomness there is in fact symmetry, order and beauty.

Similar to microscopy, photography can capture images that exactly represent the appearance of an object.  Yet Gabriele Seethaler is not satisfied with stylized  representations of an objects or person's physical appearance.  She wants to delve into their very essence, to understand their structure, how they are organized and to dissect the components from which they are composed.  Dr. Gabriele Seethaler was trained as a Molecular and Cell Biologist; she appreciates that apparently abstract shapes and unconnected images can be part of a highly organized structure. The very essence of scientific endeavor is to analyze fragments of information in isolation, and then the scientist tries to synthesize the "big picture".  This theme is apparent in many of her photographs.  Clear and distinct images merge into wispy ill-defined impressions that become increasingly abstract and less tangible yet retain a sense of reality.  Her photographs transcend reality and provide images that only hint at the original shape and structure.  These challenge and provoke us to delve into the meaning of an image; to ask why and how it has a particular shape, color or form.  They leave us wanting to know more about the picture; they are tantalizing.  Her large multiple repeating images recapitulate the ordered patterns seen in various cells and sub-cellular structures.  This convergence of biology, art and photography enables Gabriele Seethaler to generate pictures that possess a surreal quality; she was trained originally as a professional scientist and her approach is unique: she produces exciting, novel and innovative images that provide a refreshingly different perspective on the world.

Dennis Shields, Professor, Department of Developmental and Molecular Biology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, USA, 1999.