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"An object in a museum case must suffer the denatured existence of an
Animal in the zoo". - Utz, Bruce Chatwin

GROTESQUE was photographed in the Musee d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, a nineteenth century museum which houses a vast collection of fossils and skeletons neatly categorised and symmetrically arranged, reflecting the prevalent positivistic notions.

The series ironically reflects this symmetry. It creates an antithesis
To the visual harmony and rationality of the museum's presentation by
transforming the objects to representations. The collection is thereby
newly interpreted, once again "denatured".

The series, as opposed to a single, independent image, investigates foremost a conceptual idea. The artist does not just photograph the world that he perceptually encounters; he creates for himself a project to investigate that world, its objects and problem areas. The series is, therefore, not to be understood merely as a means of presentation, but is a basic type of artistic production.

Jürgen Straub