After Nature - Susanne Kriemann - (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Susanne Kriemann traces the branching legacies of the atomic age. In her work, radiation is not a distant or abstract phenomenon but part of our immediate surroundings--in the landscapes, for example, where uranium was once mined and processed. She is equally drawn to the residues of heavy industry that have quietly seeped into everyday life, such as the slag used as fill beneath the floors of Berlin Gründerzeit buildings, her own studio among them. Through photographic processes and attentive material observation, Kriemann renders these hidden presences visible, exposing how permeable the boundaries are between an industrial past, the landscape, and the spaces we inhabit today.

About the Author

With an expanded concept of the photographic document, Susanne Kriemann explores landscapes as analogue 'recording systems' for human-caused processes. Ecology is prevalent in both her subject matter and working methods. An intrinsic feature of her work is the application of the researched material in prints and exhibitions. This approach is interwoven with archaeological and geological research, allowing the (distant) past to be layered with the shared present and a speculative future. Matter, whether organic or industrially produced like (micro)plastics or radioactive fission products, incorporates this broader perspective of agency. For some years now, Susanne Kriemann has been exploring the idea of collaborating with entities or aspects of nature that are not traditionally considered human. With her work she raises hopeful questions as we witness climate change and technological disruption.

Kriemann's work was exhibited internationally, upon others at The Wattis San Francisco; Kunsthalle Wien; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; Kunsthalle Winterthur, CO Berlin and MK&G Hamburg; She has participated in the 2nd Diriyah Biennale Riyadh, 11th Shanghai Biennial, 10th and 11th Gothenburg Biennial, 2nd Karachi Biennial, 5th Moscow Biennial and 5th Berlin Biennial.
Further she participated in various artist residency programs, including 2019 NTU CCA Singapore and Goethe Institute Colombo.
Since 1998 she has co-authored seventeen artist's books.