The spirit drives me to tell of figures that have been transformed into new bodies.” from Metamorphoses by Ovid
This is how Ovid begins his famous Metamorphoses, which has inspired artists from antiquity to the present day with its tales of the shape-shifting of humans, animals and nature.
Based on the works of Christa Filser, Hirofumi Fujiwara and Teresa Riba, an attempt is made to shed light on the possible interpretations of transformations of the human being.
The human image has always been an important part of artistic exploration. They forcefully confront us with our own existence, but also with the existence of others, both in a physical and a spiritual sense.
Christa Filser transforms her figures from the new series of reverse glass paintings into a pictorial space that she furnishes with symbols and allegories to allude to current social, political or cultural issues. She was inspired by popular images of grace and icons that the artist grew up with in her Catholic environment. With her reinterpretations, she questions existing beliefs and offers alternative perspectives for seeking spiritual protection, comfort or help. Her collaged and painted portraits on paper form a continuation. Their enraptured physiognomy appears as the membrane that separates the exchange between the two.
Hirofumi Fujiwara’s naturalistic, anthropomorphic sculptures also evoke the question of how our perception reacts to the human image. For the artist, it is not the detailed reproduction that is important, but the transformation of what he sees, remembers and fantasizes through his sculpture. This manifests itself in his hybrid-looking figures, to which he lends an ethereal, androgynous and immanent expression. As a result, they elude any stereotypes and offer the viewer a projection surface for their own contemplation.
The Spanish sculptor Teresa Riba creates bronze sculptures with an extraordinary expressiveness. They become symbols of her world and thoughts, with which she wants to capture time and open up perspectives.
For the artist, looking at the sea is like looking at infinity and everything that the future holds. Each of her figures from the “Mirant el mar” (“Look at the sea”) series of works therefore radiates its own character, vision and trust in humanity. In “Aigua” (“Water”), Teresa Riba refers to the importance of water for life and equips her figures with a water tank, which will perhaps be worn like a common accessory in the future. Despite the heaviness of the bronze material, the artist lends her sculptures a lightness, liveliness and expressiveness.
Lillian Berger – art historian & curator
