Lena Ziese

Lena Ziese "kurzer Moment, z.B."



opening Friday, January 1th, 2002, 7p.m. - 9p.m.
exhibiton dates January 12th - February 23rd
opening hours Wed-Fri 1p.m. - 7p.m., Sat 1p.m. - 6p.m.




In the exhibiton "kurzer Moment, z.B." (short moment, for example) Lena Ziese is interpreting identity as the shapening of the subject partly controlled by the self, partly influenced by external impulses. In diverse medias she is relating the question of identity to the artistic search of form.

Among other objects, the present show consists of a video projection showing a 6 year old girl trying to follow the simple request of standing still in front of the camera. The girl is evolving her own strategy of how to go about with this request. She lingers between a strict self discipline, and a precarious eye contact with the camera. Next to the video projection there is a 28 kilo´s ball of children´s plasticine modelling-mass. Due to it´s own weight it is slowly going out of shape, meanwhile gaining a new one. The materiality of the ball corresponds to the reaction of the girl in the video: in both cases they are pushed into a form which they are shapening themselves.

This and further pieces in the exhibition unveils the twofold aspect of identity construction: does it come about through the impulses from outside, through observation, control and regulation or is identity rather evolving through differentiation and unfolding of an inner, puzzling individuality?
Lena Ziese´s work unveils exactly this uncertainty that takes shape during childhood itself: childhood as an example of a shapening process, in which one does not know the direction of the development and who decides the shape in the end. In her pieces the artist is confronting process and incompleteness: the human being as a sculpture in progress.