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SEEING WITH YOUR EYES: THE PHOTOGRAPHS OF PETER DRESSLER 1972 – 2003

1 April to 14 May 2016

Peter Dressler (b.1942) is an Austrian photographer whose work has been gaining international prominence since his death in 2013. Working in partnership with Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Belfast Exposed will present the first major solo exhibition of the artist's work in Ireland.

Dressler’s performance-based, staged photographic series’ involve temporary and often humorous interventions into a range of public and private spaces and everyday urban situations. Within each series Dressler himself adopts the identity of a subject closely observed from his environment; a conscientious museum attendant, a bored aristocrat, a frustrated businessman on a sales trip etc. Using sets, costumes and props Dressler creates a rich visual language and builds complex layers of narrative around each subject. By doing so he plays with the relationship between photographer and subject and probes the nature of the human condition through his character’s familiar and often irrational responses to a variety of environments and contexts.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication written by curator Margit Zuckriegl and translated by Lisa Rosenblatt.

Artist Biography

Peter Dressler (1942-2013) lived and worked in Vienna, Austria. He studied painting from 1966 to 1971 at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna under Gustav Hessing and taught at the same academy from 1972 – 2008. He has been exhibited by Camera Austria and Fotohof, Salzburg, among others. He is published by Fotohof and over 200 of his photographs are held in the collection of the Ministry for Education, Art and Culture in Vienna. He was awarded the Rupertinum Photo Prize (Salzburg, Austria) in 2001: the Higashikawa Prize (photo festival Higashikawa, Japan) in 2011; and the Grand Austrian State Prize for Artistic Photography (Vienna, Austria) in 2013.

Acknowledgements

This exhibition has been generously supported by Federal Chancellery of Austria (BKA), Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Belfast City Council. We would like to thank our partners Museum der Moderne Salzburg, curator Margit Zuckriegl and translator Lisa Rosenblatt.

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ENQUIRIES
JOANNE MULLIN 

1 April to 14 May 2016

Joanne Mullin’s work is a contemplative observation of space, memory and conflict, exploring how a place operates as an archive of its traumatic history. She looks critically at how architecture is an articulation of representation, highlighting the issue of power, control and gender. For Belfast Exposed Futures she is creating a new body of work exploring the psychological impact of the changing landscape of Northern Ireland by documenting the interiors of decommissioned Police Stations.

Joanne Mullin (b.1975) lives and works in Northern Ireland. She graduated from the Photography department at the University of Ulster in 2012 with First Class Honours. She was nominated for the Magnum Graduate award in 2015, and was a finalist of Fresh Faced and Wild Eyed at The Photographers Gallery London in 2013. Her work has been exhibited at The Photographers Gallery and in Finland as part of the Backlight Photo Festival 2014. Her work is held by private collectors and the collection of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

To accompany this exhibition we have produced a limited edition A2 poster print available to buy at £40. Please contact ciara@belfastexposed to reserve your print.

Belfast Exposed Futures is a programme dedicated to supporting new photographic talent in Northern Ireland. It supports the development and presentation of new work by six early career artists a year in a series of solo shows and aims to promote these artists on an international level by creating significant opportunities for the artists to build their careers. 

Belfast Exposed Futures is generously supported by the Foyle Foundation,  Arts Council Northern Ireland and The Directory.