Hagar Schmidhalter
Born in Raron, 1968 and lives in Basel, Switzerland
After graduating in Fine Art at the University of Art and Design in Basel the artist, who also spent time on study visits in Edinburgh, London, New York and Paris, has repeatedly attracted attention in recent years for the work displayed in various solo- and group exhibitions.
Schmidhalter works with the photographic medium in two very distinct manners. On one hand, as an archivist, by appropriating found print material and photos which are later combined and layered in order to create new combinations and readings; on the other hand, she works with readily available photographic processes, whereas the automised act of taking a snapshot, or scanning an image is questioned, or when the purpose of recording data with a common low-fi equipment becomes an exploration during which accurate imaging is replaced by material creativity.
