Natalie Czech, A poet’s question by Charles Olson (What if I am more, am I? / aaa e f h iii mmm o r t w), 2019
, Archival Pigment Print, Edition 1/5 + 2 AP, 131 x 98 cm
Kollitsch Collection

In her conceptual photographs, Natalie Czech investigates the reciprocal relationship between image and text. In her series “Poet’s Questions”, she examines the writing on objects such as music tapes or pencils for its poetic potential. By emphasising, omitting, highlighting or rearranging individual words, letters and syllables, she makes texts visible and puts them in relation to the works of contemporary artists, based on which she formulates poetic questions. In one instance, she juxtaposes the question “What if I am more, am I” by Charles Olson and the album title “I’m a Writer, Not a Fighter” by Gilbert O'Sullivan and links them on a linguistic and visual level.

— Magdalena Koschat

Natalie Czech, A poet’s statement by Ariana Reines, 2020
, Archival pigment print, Edition 3/5 + 2 AP, 72 × 92,8 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Kadel Willborn, Düsseldorf

Natalie Czech, Kool Kiss / Cigarette Ends, 2019
, Archival Pigment Print, Edition 2/5 + 2 AP, 110 × 81,2 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Kadel Willborn, Düsseldorf

The conceptual photographs from Natalie Czech’s series “Cigarette Ends” required complex research and preparation. In a laborious process, she collected cigarette butts by international brands from the 1930s to this day, which congregate in her photographs. Most of these brands are no longer in production and are sold as collector’s items. By arranging the brand names in a certain way, Czech “writes” a minimal poem, then turns it into a visual poem through its photographic orchestration. The interlinking and interplay of text and image, and the levels of meaning that emerge from this, force viewers to abandon familiar perspectives.

— Magdalena Koschat