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The initial series developed from a call by the artist to locate and photograph women throughout Switzerland whom had an identical name. Following a period of pre-selection and screening, she then invited the random women whom shared her name to sit for two photographic studies; The first, a stark frontal portrait where the women posed in a formal rigid posture, reminiscent of an ID photograph, the second, a more intimate portrait where she invited the women to adopt whatever dress or expressive pose that would best indicate or suggest their perception of themselves. The result constitutes two separate series that play between themes of documentation and narcissism. Recalling the historical phenomenon where criminology and photographic science merged in infantile attempts to discern psychological characteristics by an exact study of facial traits at the turn of the 20 th. century, Sandra Kunz evokes an examination of our collective dependency and reliance upon the medium in an age where visual culture predominates. The second series is yet more provocative in this context: the subjects themselves having been given free license to project their own personal and highly subjective self-interpretations before her lens. A camera is neutral yet in a staged environment, the artist delves more deeply into the questions of personal myth, objectivity and the photographic medium and draws a visual parameter between narcissism and auto-reflex.

The series Sandra Kunz/Sandra Kunz proves to be more complex than might be suggested at first sight. Given her attention to the minute study and documentation of the physical traits of these women whom have agreed to pose for an apparently neutral study, the artist advances the frontiers of interpretation as she later juxtaposes her own visage (eyes, nose & mouth) upon the individual facial backgrounds of the separate studies. The technique is subliminal and effect is near obscure, yet the transformation of each individuals personal identity and the premise for the portrait manifest simultaneously: the seminal Sandra Kunz has imbued her own spirit, if we may say that the eyes are the mirror of the soul, within a physical framework equally complemented by the superimposition of her own facial features. Hence, the content of the study is altered near imperceptibly while the question of form is subverted. The artist equally subjects herself to the same transformative process as the eyes & features of all of the individual Sandra Kunz subjects are juxtaposed upon her own visage in an extenuation upon the theme.

This pivotal act of transformation sabotages our collective reliance or pre-supposition of the photographic act as belonging to the truth; it acts as a counterpoint to interpretation of the image and affords an elastic field for re-interpretation of the image. The applied concept may be entitled as “An Anti-Narcissist Auto-Reflex”, the series should be considered in terms as an experiment to transcend pre-established barriers or stereotypes that govern photographic theory and relegate the visual dichotomy of objective/subjective categorization.
The thematic importance of visual multiplicity should be given greater attention. Sandra Kunz’ attention to variations of content does not undermine the relevancy of formal considerations. The separate series realized in a controlled studio environment have been exhibited to the public as a multi-media series. The static photographs have been imprinted upon both metallic plates in an individual context as well as a collective series re-produced upon an enormous poly-eurathane sheet. Multiplicity applied in the conceptual transformation of each individuals’ facial components, the ocular area, and multiplicity in the process of replication of the images. The artist seems intent to pursue the question of identification & photographic process to the end: the result is disarming and visually striking. As the contrastive elements employed are subliminal rather than immediately evident, the photographic series is seductive rather than confrontational. The spectator witnesses a morphology within the bare expressions of the documented figures & a external transformation of the self-styled, originally narcissistic projections of the womens’ individual personae as the later series of staged portraiture.

The versatility of medium, equally suggestive rather than obvious or sensational, has allowed for the exhibition of the work to enact itself upon the senses as a coherent whole: the wall space alternatively covered by one enormous print which collectives the portraits and others where individual frames demarcate the installation of photographic images in a separate & unique manner. The process of replication upon former poly-eurathane sheet incurs a slight dimunition of the minute details inherent in each image & the scale insists that the spectator distances themselves from the collective representation in order to appraise it, the metallic base of the unique frames allows for a more intimate observation of the work without any obscurity of detail or nuance which might occur due to material and technical interference. The brilliance of form and peripheral impact is thus achieved and the Sandra Kunz/Sandra Kunz conceptual unity is found.
In a final appraisal the Sandra Kunz/Sandra Kunz project manifests as a comprehensive examination upon the theme of the documentation of identity. The artist compounds our attention to photographic act by way of subliminal subversion with a note of irony. She experiments with material and form in a dualistic manner to contest our visual expectations with a unique visual and spatial experience. The seminal Sandra Kunz denies the observer to adhere to facile dichotomies of objectivity & subjectivity in the apparent quest of self, whether her own or that of the random number of women whose sole inclusion stemmed from the initial call for one name which they shared. The diversity of the content and form of the project results in a socio-cultural experience that lends insight into the human condition and psychological reference: the concept in process demonstrates individual resistance towards the premise of stereo-typology. Incarnate & self-engendering, we remain with the question, “Who is Sandra Kunz?” without answer. Sandra Kunz/Sandra Kunz serves as enigmatic end of an exacting exploration upon the infinite latitudes of identification.