CLOSE WATCH

PHOTOGRAPHS BY PETER PUKLUS

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Photographers contemplate our world with different eyes. We all have hundreds of images passing by every day, and most of the time we do not really observe them in detail, rather trying to browse through in search of something either very familiar or very exciting and new.
Artists often take a closer look and help us to take a closer look too, not just on the world around us, but maybe even first and foremost, also inside ourselves. John Cale has achieved this in a highly compelling manner with the magistral ballad “Close Watch” of his 1982 album “Music for a New Society”, a deeply moving inner reflection about loss and loneliness, but also a warm and comforting outlook, telling us that will take good care of himself.
Peter Puklus’ subtle black and white photographs have the quality of projecting us immediately into a fairly similar mood. With his recent work series “The Hero Mother - How to build a house”, he is engaging in a profoundly personal observation of an important and transformative period of his life, which many of us have gone through, or might go through at some point. When the young man he once was became a family father, he was filled with joy and happiness, but at the same time also impressed and sometimes even overwhelmed by his new responsibilities.
The very dense series of masterfully executed photo works perfectly reveal these contradictions and have a lasting impact on the observer. His pictures have this special sensitivity, where even still lives showing simple objects, like bricks or pipes for example, leave us with a poetic and sometimes a bit nostalgic impression.
They are part of an artist’s book for which Peter received the “Grand Prix Images Vevey” in 2017/18, followed by several related solo exhibitions and a publication in October 2021. This beautiful book will be available at our show in Brussels, including a limited edition with original drawings and a hand designed cover.
Peter Puklus was born in 1980 in Cluj-Napoca (Romania) as part of the Hungarian minority. He lives and works in Budapest, where he studied photography at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME), followed by new media design studies at the École Nationale Supérieure de Création Industrielle (ENSCI) in Paris.
His work has been widely shown in Hungary as well as internationally for almost 20 years, e.g. in Amsterdam, Arles, Berlin, Bratislava, Düsseldorf, Essen, Gibellina (Sicily), Paris, Prague, Tallin, Utrecht, Vevey, Vilnius, Warsaw, … but not yet in Brussels.
Thus we are very pleased to present a selection of his recent photos, accompanied by a sculpture and his artist’s book, in kind collaboration with Glassyard Gallery, Budapest, who has been representing Peter since 2017.

Text: Robert Klotz
More information: www.peterpuklus.com