Annelies Štrba

Annelies Štrba, Ån, 1999

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Annelies Štrba (b. 1947, Zug, Switzerland) combines personal and cultural memories using photographs, film and sound. The qualities she exploits in these media are calculated to appeal to the viewer’s own associations. Much of her material is drawn from her immediate environment, including documentation of her children and, more recently, her grandchild growing up.These images are manipulated to create a specific ambience. In recent works Štrba has projected the photographs in audiovisual displays that suggest a temporal sequence or a private history set alongside a more public or cultural context.

In the Tate Liverpoo, Strba created a two room projection. In one room, six slide projections of Celtic crosses created a heavy, funereal atmosphere. A projected video image of a dancing woman weaved between the crosses to a soundtrack the artist described as ‘dark, like the earth’. In contrast, the other room was a ‘light’ room, in which projected images of Strba’s grandchildren appeared against a video projection of the New York skyline. The sound, too, was light and optimistic, and the images had been processed in a very high key to produce a luminous atmosphere.

Annelies Štrba at Liverpool Biennial 1999

Ån, 1999
Mixed media installation 
Courtesy of Zúrcher Kantonalbank and Calerie Eigen + Art, Berlin
Exhibited at Tate Liverpool