Witness

China endet Covid-Sperre
Waffenruhe in der Ukraine unterbrochen
Hunderte Soldaten getötet
Klimaaktivisten sollen bestr…

8.01.23

Baldiges Aus für Corona Gesetze
Greta Thunberg in Lützerath
Hinrichtung von Akbari im Iran
Gewalt gegen Frauen in Spanien
Unwetter in Californien und Dürre

14.01.23

Witness is a story-telling drawing series. For one week in the middle of January 2023, a single tulip becomes the subject of study in the midst of my habit of daily news listening.

Flowers have been witnesses of patriarchal structures within the Western, hierarchichally structured study system of art academia for centuries. For women* were not allowed to paint genres from the top hierarchy (e.g.: historical painting), they often turned their skills to still life painting. As those gender-lines were drawn, training on a flower still life is a feminist act.

Hence, Witness has a personal touch. It deals with positioning oneself as a female artist studying at a Fine Arts Academy via the imagery of a receptive, news-listening flower.

As highly coveted flowers, tulips had to endure multiple border-crossings at the human hand: from gene fiddling via crossbreeding, hours spent on global transports, lifes in heated glass-houses, sprayed with fertilisers and pesticides, and wrapped in plastic foil, to remain an object of desire.

The tulip portrayed in the drawings was bought as part of a bouquet in local supermarket. Spending its remaining days in a vase, the tulip is not just a pretty flower to look at; it becomes a floral witness of daily headlines, cast in its shadow. This evening ritual of news listening locates both the flower and the drawing person to a specific point in time, recording their developments day by day. It is news that are of concern for our shared ecosystem nature, for human actions lead to cutting vital lines.

To sum it up with regard to Donna Haraway‘s Staying with the Trouble (2016), which I read during the making of this project:
Witness is playing string-figures with perception of chronology (drawing diary), gendered education systems (historical to contemporary syllabus for female art students), species entanglement (humans and flowers), and planetary developments (news cast).

Texts:

China endet Covid-Sperre
Waffenruhe in der Ukraine unterbrochen
Hunderte Soldaten getötet
Klimaaktivisten sollen bestr…
8.01.23

Wien-Paris-Berlin stellen iranische Botschafter ein
Angriff auf Regierungsgebäude in Brasilia
Recht auf Reparatur
09.1.23


NÖ: Härtere Strafen für Klimaaktivisten
2/3 der Wiener Spitalsärzte wollen kündigen
NHS überlastet
Warmer Winter
10.01.23


Erneuerbare Energien sollen ausgebaut werden
Lützerath wird geräumt
Geblockte Altersteilzeit schrittweise abbauen
Pollen sind im Anflug
11.01.23


Parlament wieder eröffnet
Medikamentenengpässe
Geheime Dokumente bei Joe Biden
Seltene Erden in Schweden entdeckt
Bagger in Lützerath
12.01.23


Gewaltschutz für Frauen reicht nicht aus
Exxon und Klimawandel
13.01.23


Baldiges Aus für Corona Gesetze
Greta Thunberg in Lützerath
Hinrichtung von Akbari im Iran
Gewalt gegen Frauen in Spanien
Unwetter in Californien und Dürre
14.01.23

Witness, 2023, 7-part series, ink drawings on paper (dorée 250), each 17 x 25 cm