18/10/2026
KATHARINA SIEVERDING
Life–Death
Charlottenstrasse
Until 7 November
Katharina Sieverding’s *Transformer* (1973/74) explores transformation through the interplay of identity, photographic technique, and scale. Drawing on frontal portraits of herself and Klaus Mettig from her *Motorkamera* series, Sieverding overlays their faces to create composite figures whose features resist clear gender classification. Their shadowed eyes and elusive identities connect the work to the glam aesthetic and experiments with gender expression that marked the early 1970s.
In 1974, Sieverding’s work appeared alongside artists including Jürgen Klauke, Ulay, and Urs Lüthi in *Transformer: Aspects of Travesty*, curated by Jean-Christophe Ammann at the Kunstmuseum in Lucerne. While these artists used photographic self-staging and cross-dressing to question conventions of masculinity and femininity, Sieverding approached this territory from the position of a woman artist, adopting drag as a means of unsettling established identities.
The series also extends these questions into the exhibition space. Slide projection enabled Sieverding to experiment with scale, expanding the faces to architectural proportions. Presented across three walls, their monumental presence surrounds the viewer, making transformation a question not only of identity but also of the relationship between photographic image, space, and perception.
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Images:
Katharina Sieverding, *Transformer V A/B*, 1973/1974. Fine art print, acrylic, stainless steel frame. 2 parts, each 190 × 125 cm | 74 ¾ × 49 ¼ in. Edition of 7 plus 3 AP.
Installation views at Galerie Thomas Schulte. Photo by
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