The starting point for Michael Strasser’s interventions, staged specially for the photographs, are empty rooms characterised by a sense of in-betweenness and the imminent transformation into something new. Initially the onlooker feels alone, but very soon the presence of objects brought to life becomes palpable. Golden tubes wildly snake their way across the room; parquet flooring tiles pile up to form a human-sized something and peak out of a window; a brown, stained carpet cowers in a corner, then appears neatly folded as if waiting for someone to collect it. Michael Strasser’s works showcase the past and reluctantly edge out the future. They reveal the traces of identity that remain whenever we leave the intimacy of our living spaces.

Michael Strasser, *1977 in Innsbruck, Austria. Lives and works in Vienna.