Swiss-born artist Christoph Draeger, currently working out of Brooklyn, has earned recognition for his intricate models and jigsaw puzzles fashioned after real and imaginary cataclysmic events such as hurricanes, plane crashes, and earthquakes. I had the opportunity to discuss with him how he first began to “construct destruction,” what drew him to these tragic and chaotic scenes, and the problems associated with picturing catastrophe. In addition, we discussed his work in the post-September 11th world — his current projects and the new perceptions of his work.

Jessica Ostrower: Can you describe what first drew you to these disaster scenes?

Christoph Draeger: Well, I began nearly ten years ago, after finishing art school and moving to Brussels. My way of doing art was always based on ideas. I was more or less a conceptual artist. I like paradoxical ideas, and one of those ideas was what happens when you print the image of a disaster on a puzzle? You construct an image, and when you’re done you have constructed destruction. Puzzles usually have these really idyllic, almost kitschy images that serve to satisfy the one who does them, in his need to construct a perfect world, a perfect image. I wanted to break that. I took images from disasters in the newspaper. The first I did was an aerial view of Hurricane Andrew. It was so devastating. There was so much destruction; I found it aesthetically extremely interesting, if not beautiful. In this whole mess, I saw this energy, this impact. I thought, why shouldn’t I declare them as beautiful by putting them on a support that is meant to carry a beautiful image?

Along with that came a similar idea — that I myself construct destruction, instead of having it symbolically on a puzzle. I could go ahead and construct a disaster myself as a model. So, I did two big, very elaborate models over a period of three years. At first, I wanted to construct every type of disaster. I wanted to do a hurricane, an earthquake, and a fire. I realized quickly, however, that this would be just too big, time consuming, and complicated to make. So, in order to get myself out of the studio, I thought I would visit those places, like Hurricane Andrew, where disaster actually happened, and photograph them. That project is called Voyages Apocalyptiques. It deals with the idea of time as it is rushed by the media. There is a disaster and these spectacular images; then a few days later, there’s a new disaster, new images, and the first is forgotten, unless it’s of biblical proportions, but a lot of disasters just come and go. When I go there — much later usually — I don’t see much of the disaster anymore. Most of my photographs are idyllic landscapes.

JO: Did you put the puzzles together yourself or were viewers allowed to construct them?

CD: I did a few different things. The framed puzzles are models; they’ve never been taken apart. In the beginning, though, I thought they should always be able to be taken apart, but it’s very difficult technically. I had one show last year where I had the TWA 800 puzzle half done on a table and people were invited to reconstruct it. I’ve also covered entire floors with these pieces so you wade in these fragments of images. A puzzle piece is nothing but a fragment of an image. In another piece, I filled a sandbox with puzzle pieces. I liked that one because with sand you’re always trying to construct something. But with this sandbox, you can’t build anything unless you go by the book and construct the image.

JO: Did you begin first with natural disasters, later becoming more interested in man-made destruction?

CD: I wouldn’t say so, although Hurricane Andrew was my initial project. The first series I completed included pictures from World War I, Mt. St. Helens, a plane crash in Teneriffa, and an earthquake in L.A. So, I’d say the natural disasters were an accident. I was never very interested in the distinction between natural and man-made disasters, or even crimes.

JO: Are you trying to convey any particular position?

CD: Although I’m not trying to involve any moral issues, I know I can’t avoid them. My work seems so heavily loaded, but I try to remain as distanced as I can. I think where it becomes most moral, though, is in the sense that I’m doing forbidden things. I’m using irony and satire to depict destruction. Right now, for example, we [Draeger and an American filmmaker, Reynold Reynolds] are working on a piece that is like one we have done before. It’s a newscaster on the “24-hour Disaster and Survival News Channel” that we created before September 11th. The idea is that we live in a post-catastrophic world and all the news is about disaster, and it eventually becomes very entertaining.

JO: Sensationalism?

CD: Right. Just like what happens now. But in this news channel it’s completely obvious. The newscaster is exhilarated by everything that happens. We’ve completed a new take where we have major terrorist attacks on famous landmark buildings. The situation gets totally out of hand and he realizes that it’s gone too far and that the world might come to an end — today. It’s very much about September 11th, but we avoid completely the World Trade Center or the date because all these disasters occurred already in the movies. They were anticipated. We have this great collection of images of the Chrysler building and the Empire State building crumbling, the White House and the Capital blowing up, and Air Force One crashing into the water. All these images will go in the background of the newscast.

JO: Would you say that you are informed by any particular texts of art theory or criticism?

CD: If anything, I am influenced by the poststructuralist thoughts of Baudrillard. One Baudrillard text that I find very interesting is about the implosion of this art center in the middle of Paris, Beaubourt. It’s a very direct link about how people perceive art, and how this can turn into a catastrophic sense. Currently, the iconography of disaster has really reached another level with the World Trade Center disaster, with this “clash of cultures,” and how the mechanics of one culture can be directed against itself by using its own systems, its planes, newscasts, and broadcast system. Everything was just perfect. It’s produced exactly the kind of imagery we need.

JO: What do you mean?

CD: That’s one of the reasons I’m doing this work, because I’m almost going too far. We are extremely fascinated with the images of catastrophe, with this whole iconography of disaster. With the World Trade Center, we had never seen imagery like that. We saw simulated images in films, but never real. This was real. And by its own repetition it became a complete fiction.

JO: Your current project was already underway before September 11th?

CD: The whole work is called Apocalypso Place. Originally, before 9/11, it was a sitcom taking place in a completely decimated environment. It’s a demolished home with beautiful young people who live there as if nothing was wrong. It’s like Friends. They’re watching TV all the time, but only the news and commercials play. Their dialogues are shaped by the commercials they watch.

In the installation, it’s a rebuild of the set with a big projection of the sitcom and on the TV are the disaster news and commercials. The sitcom and the commercials are always parallel, like an echo, with everything running in a twelve-minute loop. We’ve been invited to do it again in Turin in the biennial this spring. We wanted to do something new and something that reflects directly upon the new situation, because since September 11th, this whole issue has been brought to another level. We were pretty close with the first run, though. The way we’re going to show it is to have the apartment, the projection, and everything, locked in a hermetic box. There is an entrance, you get in, and you’re in this total mess. Outside the box we have a big projection of the newscaster who leads us to the end of communication or the end of the world.

Christoph Draeger’s work is on view in the exhibition “Superlounge” until May 4, 2002, at GAle GAtes et al. in Brooklyn. He also has two recently published books available, Disaster Zone (1999) and Toutou (Natural Born Killer)/Place (2001).