Peter Piller

Peter Piller
Friedhöfe (Cemeteries), 2002-2004
From Von Erde schöner (More Beautiful from Earth)
C-Print, 36.5 x 36.5 cm
Collection Fotomuseum Winterthur, acquisition with funds from Odinga Picenoni Hagen AG
2015-019-153

b. 1968 (Fritzlar, DE), lives and works in Hamburg, DE
As Peter Piller’s artistic work has evolved over time, he has collected a wide range of found photographic material. He began working on the ‘Archiv Peter Piller’ project while he was doing a student job at a media agency, where every day he would sift through large numbers of photographs from regional newspapers. This aroused his interest in mass media images. Since 1998, the artist has compiled over 7,000 items, primarily photos cut out of newspapers and magazines, as well as found postcards and images from the internet. Piller removes his finds from their original context and uses a specially developed classification system to sort them into ‘fields of interest’ on the basis of both content-related and formal criteria. The Vandalismus zeigen (Show Vandalism) collection, for example, includes photos of people pointing at wrecked outdoor furniture or street lamps, while Von Erde schöner (More Beautiful from Earth) comprises aerial shots of detached houses. The expressive titles reveal the artist’s associative and humorous take on seemingly desultory visual material that, when arranged in series, opens itself up to new readings.