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Metaphors for Transience
Metaphors for Transience
Kathrin Linkersdorff
April 17, 2025
Fairies I/1, 2020
© Kathrin Linkersdorff / VG-Bildkunst, Bonn 2025
The showcase features selected works from various projects created in the past several years, including Wabi Sabi (2013–2017), Floriszenzen (2019 onwards), and Fairies (2020 onwards), as well as excerpts from her most recent series, Microverse, which has been ongoing since 2023.
In her work, Kathrin Linkersdorff (b. 1966) highlights the complex interplay of emergence and demise in the natural world. Her orchestrations are a convergence of science and art, whereby the photographer uses both experimental approaches and processual methods from the field of microbiology to record specific points in the organic decay process of plants.
At the heart of her work is the aesthetic principle of Wabi-Sabi, which the artist encountered during a two-year DAAD scholarship in Tokyo. The concept centres on the idea that transience and imperfection are a valuable part of life. Today, Wabi-Sabi is the driving force behind her artistic practice: by depicting the internal structures of plant organisms in their most fragile state, the artist creates a visual metaphor for impermanence as an integral element of life’s sequence.
Linkersdorff’s images have been showcased in multiple German and international exhibitions, and published in two monographs (both released by Hartmann Books). You can also find a portfolio of the artist’s work in LFI 7.2021.
Katrin UllmannIn her work, Kathrin Linkersdorff (b. 1966) highlights the complex interplay of emergence and demise in the natural world. Her orchestrations are a convergence of science and art, whereby the photographer uses both experimental approaches and processual methods from the field of microbiology to record specific points in the organic decay process of plants.
At the heart of her work is the aesthetic principle of Wabi-Sabi, which the artist encountered during a two-year DAAD scholarship in Tokyo. The concept centres on the idea that transience and imperfection are a valuable part of life. Today, Wabi-Sabi is the driving force behind her artistic practice: by depicting the internal structures of plant organisms in their most fragile state, the artist creates a visual metaphor for impermanence as an integral element of life’s sequence.
Linkersdorff’s images have been showcased in multiple German and international exhibitions, and published in two monographs (both released by Hartmann Books). You can also find a portfolio of the artist’s work in LFI 7.2021.
ALL IMAGES ON THIS PAGE: © Kathrin Linkersdorff
LFI 7.2021+-
Kathrin Linkersdorff: Fairies. With her poetic still lifes of flowers, Kathrin Linkersdorff walks the narrow path between existence and transience More
Kathrin Linkersdorff+-
The photo artist was born in East Berlin in 1966. After studying architecture at the Technical University of Cottbus, Linkersdorff worked in her profession, from 1990 to 2012, in Tokyo, Berlin and Düsseldorf, before dedicating herself fully to photography. Her photographic work has been presented nationally and abroad, including in large-format outdoor exhibitions in Berlin and Erfurt. Her first book, titled Fairies, was published recently by Hartmann Books. More
Fairies I/1, 2020
© Kathrin Linkersdorff / VG-Bildkunst, Bonn 2025
Fairies IV/2, 2020
© Kathrin Linkersdorff / VG-Bildkunst, Bonn 2025
Floriszenzen 1, 2019
© Kathrin Linkersdorff / VG-Bildkunst, Bonn 2025
Wabi Sabi II/4, 2017
© Kathrin Linkersdorff / VG-Bildkunst, Bonn 2025
Microverse III/1/2025/Sc-M510/19.6.-8.7.24
© Kathrin Linkersdorff / VG-Bildkunst, Bonn 2025
Microverse III/4/2025/Sc-M510/19.6.24-13.1.25
© Kathrin Linkersdorff / VG-Bildkunst, Bonn 2025