swimming in a sea of what could be

'Swimming in a sea of what could be' is a two-channel video installation on a semi-transparent patchwork fabric surface, dyed from self-made plant colours. The fabric surface is hung diagonally in the room in an S-shape so that the projections penetrate the fabric at different distances and appear in different sizes on the projection surface and walls. Round cut-out pieces of mirror foil on the walls and floor reflect the light of the projections, creating a shimmering, moving world of patterns that is repeatedly accentuated by hands and arms stretching across the room. 

The work is related to my research into the mandrake plant, a medicinal plant and one of the best-preserved gynaecological plant substances in history. The thousands of years old stories that have grown up around the plant tell of a plant in human form that promises the solution to the most human of desires: happiness, prosperity, love and fortune. While the fabric is coloured from a variety of different natively grown plants, the patterns of the projections are enlarged drawings of the mandrake root. A continuously shifting sea of patterns moves across fabric, wall and floor from which, almost imperceptibly the shape of human figures emerge.

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2023

dimension variable

botanical dyes on cotton fabric, metal, mirror foil, video-projections

 

Supported by:

Maklersregeling Den Haag​

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Exhibition:
Auswahl 23, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, Switzerland, 2023  

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photo: Leonie Brandner