Astrid Busch: Northern Light

Simultaneously frightened and fascinated by reports of tsunamis and monster waves, Astrid Busch researched the Internet for images of these phenomena. She scans, projects, and photographs the material she found in a variety of ways, often in complex overlays with other images. In a further step, the artist destroys the photographs with various light sources. Light acts as a compositional element with which she simultaneously paints, irritates, alienates and destroys. With the series “Northern Light”, Astrid Busch refers to paintings by the Norwegian landscape painter Peder Balke (1804-1887), who provided the impetus for this group of works with his abstract formal language and dramatic lighting, which was unusual for the time.