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Stripping 1998, Museum
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The series Stripping (1998) consists of large-format c-prints; each individual shot in the loosely connected sequence shows a protagonist in an architectural setting. As in many of their works, the title is intentionally ambiguous: Stripping can refer to taking off clothing, but may equally apply to emptying out rooms, scraping off coats of paint, and, even (in a metaphorical sense) the disclosure of levels of meaning… Hubbard and Birchler's pictures do not show narrative action dramatically coming to a head, but rather moments of ambivalence and transition. So it remains unclear whether the actresses in Stripping are alone on stage or positioned relative to others who are unseen. Are they climbing into the house through a window or are the sneaking out? Are they apprehensively listening through the floor or are they themselves intruders? Are they stepping into a new apartment for the first time or returning to their place of childhood? Like the characters in Luigi Pirandello's play, Six Characters in Search of an Author, the actors, props, backdrops, and title all function as elements of countless possible plots, the endings of which can be fixed neither by the authors nor the audience.
Excerpt from 'Viewmaster' by Philip Ursprung, Professor for Modern and Contemporary Art Institute for the History of Art, University of Zurich