The works of the series “Schutzräume – do we have a second chance” are quiet, associative and sometimes puzzling. Schematic figures emerge sometimes more, sometimes less clearly from a color-reduced background. The face of an iconic young woman in profile directs the view into the distance. The soft contours of the portraits merge with the background. When looking closely, it becomes clear that behind the woman the outlines of another body are concealed. Is it her shadow? A young man in a suit looks at us confidently. He stands in an undefined, square-shaped space, which appears more real than the man: Like a slowly fading memory, his body dissolves. In another work of the series, a fair-haired mannequin meets her own image. A game of approach and detachment arises. Where do the pictures come from? What do they tell us?

Ute Fischer-Dieter works with finds, high-quality and aesthetically pleasing advertising leaflets. Through their operation of the transillumination, the front and rear of the magazines enter into a dialogue with each other. People and objects meet, which do not belong directly to each other. New pictures emerge, stories are told again in a new context.

For the production of the work, the found material is first prepared manually. Subsequently the individual pages are overprinted with delicate gouache tones in the screen printing process. The screen stencil is obtained from a handmade paper by exposing the sheet to the coated screen. During the printing process, the original images are not completely concealed thanks to a translucent color application – much more, they appear mysteriously through the color layers. At the edge of the picture, the printing inks run out slowly and frame the image in the center. Since the printed fields are not exactly superimposed on one another, the different color layers become visible. They differ in light nuances. The work is photographed against light and printed on high-quality, haptic-looking paper. As a result, the full prospectus is transferred to an unique copy in order to be transferred to a duplication technique in the next step.

The handcrafted work of art limited to a few copies, contradicts the mass production of the used prospectuses. The same is true for paper used as printing stencil. Today this paper is often very cheap available, as it has been mostly produced in countries with low wages and in large quantities.

Finally, the digital photos and videos were also taken of the haptic screen printing series. In her most recent works, too, the artist plays with the change of media – from paper to digital. The existing image files are virtually layered on the computer and could then be printed. This allows her to stay true to her way of working, because creating something new does not require finding new resources. Rather, she concentrates on the things that are there and thinks them further.