Bella
Evelyn Kutschera's Artist Statement
Final Major Project, University of Gloucestershire, 2012
Isabella is a 6 year old kid living in Winterthur, Switzerland, to avoid clichés I will just briefly state that there is nothing special about her, of course she is my parent’s god child and in that sense she is like family to me, but she is not a soon to be heart surgeon, great singer, or a future Olympic medalist. She is just a normal kid growing up in a boring part of Switzerland. And there is nothing wrong with being normal. I was drawn to her, because I felt like there would be a difference in her upbringing compared to my time growing up in the same boring part of Switzerland, but I can honestly say that there isn’t. Yes, she does watch television and can go on YouTube, but that’s normal these days. I also knew how to operate the VCR and turn on the TV when I was at that age, kids adapt much quicker.
With these photographs I wanted to focus on how in the last 20 years not much has changed, and so after spending time with her, I started documenting various aspects of her daily life, not because they were so peculiar, but because they were so NOT out of the ordinary. It feels strange to know that even after 20 years being a 6-year-old means the same as it meant when I was at that age. We tend to think that the internet and technology had such a great impact on our life, that kids became completely tech bound and solely hung out with their friends online, so for once it was reassuring that not much has changed in the boring part of Switzerland.
