Artist Statement

My recent work comes from an intensive ten-year journey of self-questioning and personal research into identity and self-perception. This journey started from the single premise that my identity is not mine. Rather it is shaped by what surrounds me – the people, the time and the places. Each of these influences burrows into my being to mould what is seen as me.

As an artist I want to reach beyond these external influences to discover an identity which is me shorn of social messages and interpretation. I want to look for freedom. In order to do so, I need to examine how I respond to what is expected of me, and to understand how I respond to the rules of my society. This analysis then allows me to abandon these constraints and to find freedom in the knowledge that whatever happens is a matter of choice. My choice.

During this emotional and creative journey, which I consider a work in progress, I have produced many series of drawings and artworks that can be divided into three distinct periods. Each period is marked with a clear aesthetic. The human body serves as an important structural element in my art and research and is the protagonist in all three periods.

The drawings from the first period explore the internalised female self-image and self-perception. Examples of these works include the series facing the Delusion, Schlaf Kindlein schlaf and Nine Works on Paper.

The second period visualises mental and emotional travels that rediscover and recollect the past, based on the platonic idea of anamnesis which has the goal of creating a new future. I describe these works as maps of the past containing keys to a new future. They include Anamnesis Series I, II, III and IV.

The third period features large-scale drawings of psychological tension, in which I purposely reveal the raw honesty of external and internal emotional baggage. Designed as giant optical lenses these drawings allow me to visually approach and comprehend thoughts and worlds in which existential questioning is taking place.