Opening reception:
Thursday, March 4th, 2004
6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

ClampArt is pleased to announce “Hybrid: Photographs by Dietmar Busse and Doris Mitsch.” Both artists, using flowers as their primary subject, put a unique spin on the tradition of floral photography.

Dramatically primed from head-to-toe in chalky paints, Dietmar Busse uses his own body as his canvas, adhering petals, blossoms, leaves, and stems onto his sticky skin to create whimsical yet haunting self-portraits. In other works Busse uses parts from a variety of disparate plant forms, assembling compositions on monochrome walls—fantastical new flowers possible only in the artist’s imagination. In one such creation, for example, an anemone blossom sprouts carnation leaves and grows from a stalk of aloe. Busse then photographs his ephemeral constructions which are later presented as lush, vibrant Cibachrome prints. The artist toys with medium specificity, teasing the boundaries of painting, sculpture, photography and performance, while nodding toward our common relation to and dependence upon nature in the face of a highly technological era.

Doris Mitsch, on the other hand, keeps her flowers largely intact when creating her astonishingly detailed studies of plants’ sensuous and mysterious forms. Mitsch, a pioneer in new photographic media, captures her images without the use of a traditional camera. Employing a flatbed scanner, the artist then prints directly from digital files onto thick rag paper. The inky, matte, slightly textured surface of the final artworks lends them a distinctive look more akin to pastels or watercolors than standard photographic prints. Mitsch’s process, without the use of a common camera or even film, demands our re-evaluation of that which we have commonly termed the “photograph.”

“Hybrid” is the presentation of work by two artists who seek to meld and ultimately expand the possibilities of a variety of media. For more information please contact Brian Paul Clamp, Director. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.