This selected body of works by five female artists centres on figural output, drawing on various techniques and materials cultivating elemental contemplations of individual human identity, reflections of inner life, existential maxims, and a fine web of emotions. The exhibition explores the human body’s function and role in contemporary art, questioning whether art is still a reflection of the body or, increasingly, a surface on which we project inner life. It examines what contents and modern dogmas we communicate in the human form, whether this may be a proxy means of expressing hard-to-grasp mental tribulations and joys, and whether and how a figure can reflect heightened emotions emerging from unavoidable historical faults or personal tragedies.
Any interpretation will be restricted to loose parallels where the opportunities to search for meaning are derived either directly from the development of each individual artist and/or from the framing of similarities and differences in their artistic expression. Five separate presentations, five individual paths with different starting points that have followed disparate courses, routes and directions, yet each able to act and function as a key unlocking the interpretation of certain other works of the others that are exhibited in parallel.
The exhibition, ambiguously entitled – by design – Flaesh, has been prepared in close personal cooperation with the individual artists, their studios and galleries. A separate hall is devoted to the work of each of the artists, every one forming an exhibition in and of itself. This collection of more than sixty sculptures, drawings, watercolours, pieces of embroidery and installations delivers an overview of important chapters in the output of the selected artists. Each installation is complemented by a video screening an interview with the artist, embedding the exhibited works in a broader interpretive framework and context while offering the viewer an insight into their intellectual landscape.
