Conceptual approach to our perception and existence
My works are dealing in an interdisciplinary and conceptual way with our existence and transcience, the human being in society and his perception. The media adapt to the needs of the respective work and extend to painting, drawings, objects, sculptures and installations. I am combining my former studies in my work: biology and fashion design..
Birgit Maaß
Was bleibt 2018, steel, test tubes, hair, 90 x 200 x 170 cm Was bleibt is a participatory work on transience: What is left of us if we do not live anymore? Many have the desire to preserve their existence, to make their lived existence visible. By participating in this work it is possible one day to be in the museum with your own hair and name. The deal? The participant picks a place in bed, pays, and gets two test tubes. In the empty one’s own hair is filled, and this occupies the chosen place. For this, the glass filled with hair of the artist has to give way and is handed over together with a wall mount. The places are limited to 100. On the list of participants and the map all names will be displayed in exhibitions and later in museums This work is nominated for the international Blooom Award among 2.800 applicants.
Absence 2012, hair, paraffin on MDF, 24 x 30 cm. Absence looks like a drawing or a blurred photograph. As you get closer, you can see the transparent wax layer that gives the work a marble look. When reading the picture reference and recognizing that it is hair, many viewers take a step back. I like to play with the ambivalence of hair that can seduce in its tenderness and at the same time repulse.
uniform 2013, make-up on paper, bandage clips, 100 x 170 cm. uniform describes the sometimes painful effort to achieve individuality, which can also become a corset, as well as the social group pressure of fashion and status that makes many look similar. The paperwork is very light and hangs on transparent fishing tendons from the ceiling. The group of paper corsets moves in step as it passes through the light draught of air.
Veggie Boops 2015, Agar Agar, Ø 12cm, size variable. „Veggie Boops“ rides on the wave of self-optimization madness and the growing vegan trend, because agar agar is a vegetable gelatine. However, the medium opposes the social development of physical perfection and aging: the water begins to diffuse after a while and the boops begin to shrink, increasingly showing their transience. The work may be touched, the experience is surprising!
Transplantation 2013, hair, silicone, make-up, embroidery frame, 25 Ø cm each The work shows the process of emergence, of growth, in order to be transplanted later. Hair grown on an artificial silicone surface, limited by an embroidery frame, the place of conventional handwork. Arise in such a way new identities in the future? Will these be transferable to other bodies and places?
What is it about your studio space that inspires you?
the silence, the open space, being close to the sky
What is your favourite material to work with? How has your use of it evolved throughout your practice?
I am generally very curious about materials exploring them. Often using organic ones as hair and agar agar, facing industrial ones as silicone, wax and nylon. Hair: starting with it to evolve the idea of drawing it became a medium to change our perception of art because the artworks should be touched, and actually it's part of a partipatory work which markets the transcience.
What advice has had the biggest impact on your career?
Do what you love and you are believing in
If you weren´t an artist, what would you be doing?
a composer
What are your favourite places besides your studio?
nature
EXHIBITIONS
GROUP
2023
Update #23 VBK, Berlin
Close up, Atelier Jankowski, Berlin
2022
Void Time eingeladen von Ann Schomburg, on equal terms, Uferhallen, Berlin
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WORKS IN COLLECTIONS
Friederike Hauffe, Berlin
Stefan J. Uibel, Berlin
AWARDS
2019 Blooom Award, nominated under 3.200
2018 Blooom Award, nominated under 2.800
2015 Blooom Award, nominated under 1.750
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