The interview took place at Malmö Konshall on the occasion of Gutke’s solo show in May 2012.

Alexander Gutke’s works are often a poetic reflection on the materiality and function of the mechanical objects which form part of his realm, such as 35mm carousel slide projectors and 16mm film. Consider for example; ‘Expanded View’ from 2005 a presentation of 81 slides, 81 literal slices of the internal workings, wires and mechanics of a carousel projector and a later work and ‘Auto-scope’ from 2012, whereby a 16mm projector is seen to have an apparent out of body experience as the very film it is projecting appears to exit the rear of the projector and hover above the projector before rejoining its surreal mechanical soul-mate. Both these works can be said to deal with a perverse implied mechanical being, a cyber-existentialism for the functioning object. They are also about perception, presumption and what is given. Consider also ‘Singularity’, 2010; film reels spin and hum around us as 16mm film of a moving tape measure sleeks from corner to corner delineating our solid physical space parameters cm after cm. Follow the film stock to the projector and no conclusion is offered, no final fixed measurement is ever stated for us. Gutke’s oeuvre is abstraction, meta-physical abstraction via the mechanical and the properties of the machines and machinations of perception.

Alexander Gutke, lives and works in Malmö.