missing

2023

ai-generated images

6,5 x 6,5 cm, inkjet on fine art baryta

These are images to fill the gaps in the family photo album. 

I grew up with stories about the war. My grandfather talked to me about his time as a prisoner in Russia, about being hungry, being without news from the family, but he also told me about a little girl of my age for whose doll he built furniture. While my grandfather was missing, my grandmother had to get along by herself, taking care for her three young children, chopping wood etc. 

I prompted the images that those stories evoke in my head to DALL-E. The mistakes in them are obvious - they correspond with the "errors" in my imagination and also with the contradictory feelings that I have concerning these stories, knowing they are only one part of the truth. My grandfather died when I was seven, so I never had the chance to discuss his past with him.

The photos are printed very small and cut with the cutting machine that I inherited from my grandfather.