Studio and Laboratory (2017 – 2019)

Be it artistic works or scientific discoveries, the end results are all that generally remain visible of the creative process. What happens behind closed doors in the laboratory or studio tends to be just as invisible as it is mysterious. Stefanie Bürkle, a German artist and visual arts professor, chose to delve into these sites of creativity, using large and medium-format analogue cameras to photograph scientists’ laboratories and artists’ studios in Berlin.

Bürkle’s photographic works present intriguing visual puzzles. Each is a bewildering mosaic of storage shelves, work benches, tools, equipment, and half-finished projects

that convey a sense of energy and creativity. The viewer is compelled to imagine what these spaces look like whenpopulated and what types of activities would take place. The photographs reveal a curious similarity between studio and laboratory. Would we see the same similarities if we were watching artists and scientists at work? Perhaps, but not necessarily. By pointing her lens at the work spaces rather than the workers, Bürkle encourages us to look past some of the superficial differences between artists and scientists and to consider whether at a deeper level there are significant parallels in the creative processes of the two disciplines and to better understand the nature of creativity.