Currents 36: Dirk Skreber

German artist Dirk Skreber is best known for his paintings and sculptures that portray catastrophic events. Aerial views of buildings submerged in flood waters and scenes of violent car accidents are depicted with a calm detachment that infuse the paintings with an uncomfortable tension. Skreber performed controlled car crashes to create his monumental sculptures of cars wrapped around poles, presenting the extensive and horrific damage in the dissipated setting of the art gallery. It is not the catastrophe depicted that is the disconcerting element in Skreber’s work, but rather the neutrality with which the scenes are presented.