[Winter 2026]
On Depicting the Immediate and the Enigmatic
by Earl Miller
[EXCERPT]
The retrospective exhibition of Clara Gutsche’s work, marking her receipt of an important photography award, spanned over fifty years of practice. Born in St. Louis, Missouri and residing in Montreal since 1970, Gutsche initially centred her work in her adopted hometown, later expanding internationally. She divides her oeuvre into thematic series, some of which she revisits after decades-long gaps in time. Thus, her themes are linked by an uncanny aesthetic triggered by the depiction of the liminal crossover between past and present, in neither of which the photographer and, by proxy, the viewer, has a foot. This haunting sensation pulls us away from the immediacy of experience to a surrealistic, dreamlike transitional space, often an interior or otherwise closed-off site, imbued with memories and histories. It is as if Gutsche were a somnambulist, walking through a nether zone between reverie and reality.
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[ Complete issue, in print and digital version, available here: Ciel variable 131 – Collecting ]
[ Complete article in digital version available here: On Depicting the Immediate and the Enigmatic]
Earl Miller is an independent art writer and editor residing in Toronto who has published regionally, nationally, and internationally.