On C. D. Friedrich #01

In a series of videos entitled “On C.D. Friedrich”, David Muth engages with the famous German painter and his particular approach to the depiction of landscape. In one video we are presented with a drummer sitting behind his kit who is working the drums, in another, a dancer performs moves, both of these scenes taking place in the Finnish woods. The framing of the shots has been chosen carefully according to the principles of pictorial compositions that were the landmark of German Romantic painting. Most importantly, the subjects are entirely subsumed by the landscape, as they are staged in the back of the open volume and therefore become compositional elements that are part of the wider ensemble generated by Muth’s visual selection