Katharina Siegel (29.07.1993, Frankfurt am Main, Germany) is a Visual Artist that mainly focuses on the medium of photography. She currently lives and works in Amsterdam. Katharina has studied Sociology and after that she studied Graphic Design. Right now she is graduating from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie Amsterdam in Photography. Her works focus on questions of identity, intimacy and the contemplation of the inner world. Hiding, concealing and masking are central topics within Katharina's work, which can be seen as an attempt to turn the inner world to the outside and make it become visible. Her works have been exhibited in Amsterdam, Tokyo, Paris and Frankfurt. 

The series ‘Casting Out’ (2019 - 2020) features analog images from the families archive. Each image shows family members whose faces are covered with an object that makes them unrecognisable. The series is influenced by the personal relationships within the artists family. Closeness, companionship, growing up and conflict are part of the series. Hidden family stories and childhood memories served as a source of inspiration. The series takes a humorous and loving look at shared family memories. Objects on top of the faces of family members makes them unrecognisable, except for the family members themselves. The objects that cover the individuals refer to the personal connection between artist and the portrayed person. ‘Casting Out’ is about personal histories, family ties and memories within the artist’s family.

Casting Out

The project is part of the series ,Is it me or is it you?' (2021). It reflects on the personal experience of the artist with the neurological condition of synesthesia. 

True Blue

The project 'Melon' is from the year 2017 and was taken in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Starting point of the series was the theme of 'pressure'. The series juxtaposes several images
that show the physical destruction of a watermelon. It is a project full of colour and humorous 
look at the theme of pressure. 

Melon

Katharina Siegel
,Is it me or is it you?’
2020


The series features photographic images and animations that all focus on the topic of memory and forgetting. Throughout time, memories tend to change and alter. They become distorted versions of what once was real. Can they be visually recreated? 

The artist found a personal way of navigating through the confusion of memories. She connects colours to certain kinds of memories, emotions or people. Through the intuitive knowledge of which memory needs to be connected to which colour, she tries to relive her own past. The artwork can be seen as a contemplation about closeness, companionship and joy. The colour blue is a representation of satisfaction and solace, as much as love. The soft pink is the familiar and the comfort of the known. Green turns into a symbol of uncertainty and the mysterious. They all blend together and meet each other in the mind through the act of remembering. ,Is it me or is it you?’ is a fragment of a series about memory that features several colours within photography, animation, writing and voice installations.  

They are currently exhibited at ,The Art of September', Amsterdam.

Is it me, or is it you?

‘The grass is always greener in my room’ (2022) is reflecting on physical and emotional distance that results in a tendency to escape reality for the comfort and safety of an imaginary world. The artist combines different mediums such as photography, text, video and performance in a changing installation that aims to give insight on her personal perception of distance, longing, family and escapism. Fragments of the project are being presented at Fotodok in Utrecht.

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Katharina Siegel