Simryn Gill works with found or selected objects in her sculptural works, as well as her photographic ones. These consist of series with a common theme. The shots of private rooms, which show architectural space as a background for the life that takes place within it, are particularly impressive. Due to the presence of furnishings and the user’s objects, the pictures produce discrete insight into the private sphere. In a series, these individual portraits become a description of a subcultural space that we Europeans would not recognise as being ours, but which enables us to recognise that globalisation brings standardisation of many areas with it – including the area of living. Simultaneously, there are regional variations crucial to the region’s identity.

The forcefulness of the colours and the absence of people awaken a desire to be able to perceive not only the rooms themselves but also the people, smells, weather and so on. It is an invitation to travel, not to the tourist centres, but rather to people – those at the other side of the globalised world.

Paul Katzberger, 2005 (translation: Tim Sharp)