Peter Puklus : The Epic Love Story of a Warrior

Peter Puklus is among a generation of artists for whom photography isn’t taken as a straight­for­ward medium. Instead, it is a tool bogged down by a trail of cul­tural, artistic, com­mer­cial and political associations and cor­relations. Rather than con­sider this aspect as a weak­ness, the artist con­sciously exploits this con­text to invert it to his own advan­tage. The par­ticular allure of the artist's prac­tice is derived from his ability to con­struct visually cap­tivating, multi-​layered images out of basic elements, figures and iconographic frameworks that are within our reach. He primarily operates in his immediate environ­ment and his basic medium of expres­sion is the outwar­dly clas­sic tech­nique of studio photography; trivial events, subtle gestures and momen­tary poses come together with a con­stel­lation of objects or home interiors as a photographic nar­rative woven by Puklus. Those objects, col­lec­ted and con­struc­ted specifically for the pur­pose of these photographs, often take on a second life as individual works, sculp­tures or instal­lations in their own right. They build a third dimen­sion within Puklus’ photographic universe, while effec­tively rub­bing out the boun­dary between fic­tion and reality, documen­tary and creation.