Ambivalent growth
32-parted photo series, dimensions variable + text (engl), 2019-2020. A collection of portrait photographs of plants that are spontaneously, hence successfully growing in the city. These plants might be looked upon as useless, irritating, harmful and at the same time as courageous, resilient, lucky. Paired with adjectives of contradictory connotations, portraits of the plants that are botanically categorized as weeds, unkraut, represent the idea of ambivalent growth, of some sort of inextricability, that might as well be understood as an understatement from/for all marginal, suppressed, ephemeral, disturbing, yet very much alive.
words like weeds
Videoinstallation, 06:57, HD video, 2021. The textual video work evolved through the process of merging the imagery of handwritten diary entries, notations, and sketches with a series of photographic portraits of the plants that are botanically categorized as weeds. In the literary tradition, words and pages have often been compared to the spontaneous vegetation, for example, Whitman`s Leaves of grass. Furthermore, the weeds themselves allude, as their French name mauvaise herbes suggests, to the tradition of those thoughts and feelings that are perceived as rather problematic, painful, useless, than useful, amazing, and beautiful. At its best, they are both at the same time. An inner monologue superimposing the imagery in form of its transcription is a leading thread of the work. Rhythm is created by the camera moving over the pages and the sound of the author typing on a computer keyboard.
After Martha Wilson,
A Portfolio of models
8-parted photo series, 15 x 20 each, text, Engl, framed in 40 x 60
Wilson`s series from 1972, in which she stages a set of roles that are given to her in the sense of gender, resonated strongly with the experience of assistant work that I am currently engaged with.
I appropriated the series, focusing on the motif of helping hands, associating the type of care work that has been predominantly connotated as typically female. The short descriptions comment on the roles with a hint of self-irony. The outline of the series remains open as well as the titles of roles so it makes it applicable to various fields of work. Wilson concludes her series: "These are the models society holds out to me: … At one time or another, I have tried them all on for size, and none has fit.” Whereas model-fitting can be funny, role development needs some time, courage, and imagination.
Sixteen drying racks
Artist book, 21 x 14.5 cm, 24pp., Engl., edition: 30, 2018. Documentation of the daily changing display of towels in the backyard of our house. On one occasion there was this woman in the backyard, checking the towels on the racks. We had a short conversation. "The boss insists: three towels for each client!" The costs for the laundry are on her...a sigh and a glance of a silky morning gown balancing the rack up the stairs towards Golden Phönix Studio. There, you can get a massage with a happy ending.
Reload Play
Venus asleep
Observing Giorgione’s painting through a grid
8 x 8, felt-tip pen/paper, 168 x 240 cm, 2014
Lepota
video still, HD silent video 01:10, 2015. Choreography for six letters, appropriation of the text “Domov” by Ivan Cankar
Inserts
temporary collages on a window screen, series of 11 photographs, 2014. By pasting forms made out of paper, adhesive tape, or found objects towards the window screen and capturing the arrangement in combination with the background of a certain place the train is just passing through, a narrative is created. Furthermore, collaging on a window screen and thereby rearranging the view alludes to the act of landscape painting and re-contextualizes this genre in an instant, ephemeral manner. Perhaps one more thing to do while you have time during an 8-hour ride.
Counting rhyme
The project Izštevanka / Counting rhyme was realized as an exhibition inside the gallery and sound intervention in public space. In the gallery, 13 paintings, recapturing landscape fragments as potential hiding places were hung, accompanied by a looped video projection of the author counting from 100 to 0. Outside, hidden in a passage between the park and the main square, a soundtrack was playing, in which the inhabitants are giving directions to their secret places. The idea of search and hide evokes an unparticular situation of searching for somebody or something. A counting rhyme is used to determine the one who is going to search. Is it the viewer or the painter who is searching and what is it that you are searching for?
In Circles
chalk/asphalt, r 72, 2010
A commentary on a life situation in which everything is possible because the orientation coordinates are not certain or given. The observer is invited to step in the middle, position her/himself as the magnetic needle and rotate with the whole body until she/he wants.
With all due respect
Artist book, 9 pp., 2013, 9 instructions for performative re-enactments of various art-educational practices. Based on personal experience gained between 1988 and 2010.
Encouragement 1, 2, 3
animated readymade, rucksack, speakers, soundtrack (various lengths, looped), 2010. While finishing my studies I collected voice recordings of my colleagues expressing words of encouragement because that is what I wanted to take with me after we separate. Afterward, two more versions of the soundtrack, each for a particular exhibition and with a different group of people were made. Contributions are as various as their contributors.
Unconditional positive regard (Autumn)
paintings, oil/cotton, 120 x 100 each, 2019/2020
