Drilling Tower, Kvaerner: November 29, 2000
Unique gelatine silver print
61 x 50.8 cm (unframed)
68.6 x 56.2 x 3.8 cm (framed)
Courtesy the artist
This work has been donated by Vera Lutter in support of Art For Your World and will be available to buy at Sotheby's in October 2021
"I am thrilled to be donating my Drilling Tower, Kvaermer: November 29 2000 to the Art For Your World auction at Sotheby’s this October. It feels a very pertinent image when we are all trying to cut back on fossil fuel consumption. This drilling tower structure could be a symbolic monument of our times." - Vera Lutter
In 1997, Lutter began creating a series of works related to transportation, photographing locations such as Kvaerner Shipyard in Rostock, Frankfurt Airport, and the Zeppelin hangar in Friedrichshafen. At the time, Lutter had recently left Europe for New York, and the series dealt with this transition and experiencing distance from home. As in her other works, Lutter's long exposures remove all human subjects, a fact turned poignant metaphor by Lutter's choice of locations.
She often photographed shipyards that were going out of business, at a time when many of the industrial sites in Europe were closing as production moved to China, as well as both a mining field and an oil rig-- sites which exist to supply energy for our constant movements. In relation to the idea of movement at these sites, Lutter's exposures allow for the ability to create notions of motion and transition within a tangible image.