About

Artist Statement:

My artwork is focused on the relationship between humans, machines, animals and their hybridization at the border areas of biology, myths of creation. It triggers the connections between life, science, art and engineering reflecting our rapport to nature within our current information society. The overlap between the natural and the artificial as a substantial dialog between body and material challenges the central, ethically sacrosanct principle of development based on progression and adaptation.

The synthesis of nature and engineering allows the combination of seemingly non-corresponding materials and the exploration of synthetic replacements of bodily properties, leading to the creation of artificial hybrid creatures and questioning the human condition in the 21st century. Recent discoveries in bio engineering and the fantasy of creating artificial human counterparts allow new constructs for functional and aesthetic research; as such the scientific laboratory becomes cultural. The making of artificial body-parts from a diverse range of materials and use of technical and medical advancements as a temporary or permanent substitute for organic tissue facilitates life. In this context, the animal is subordinated and classified as a commodity.

The series of two-legged dogs ( 12 )  reflect a possible body modifications; the dog symbolizes a creature whose evolutionary development is caused by a deformation and whose acquisition of the upright walk brings it closer to becoming „human“. Through the shape of the animal body, the material redefines the perfect form of the traditional figurine. The use of porcelain in this work explores this tension, its cultural evolution and its semantic relevance as a pure, white, elitist, and traditional raw material as opposed to its use in medicine and biotechnology. The material and cultural transformations of porcelain address the connections between what is changeable and permanent.

The overlap between the natural and the artificial as a substantial dialog between body and material challenges the central, ethically sacrosanct principle of development based on progression and adaptation.