"Mutation" & "The Virus Connects"- Collage Works
Artist Statement:
“Mutantin“ and “The Virus Connects“ show the state of exception and the madness of individuals in analog or digital life during the pandemic.
"Haltungsform" (2020) deals with our relationship to flesh and physicality. The mixed creature, that can be seen in the picture, walks on stilts, which consist of QR-codes. These in turn symbolise our commodity and consumer society, on which our appreciation of organic material is based. On the one hand we trade our human organic material very high and make it appear flawless, on the other hand the value for animal meat and its basic needs is very low.
"Sit or Jump“ (2020): The work poses the ultimate question about collective behaviour for the time during and after the Covid19 pandemic: do we continue as before or do we risk the destruction of old values in order to achieve a reorganisation of power relations? In a mixture of painting and collage, the work shows the social state we are currently living in. The boat, in which you can see a virus-infected person, embodies the current situation. Dead bodies, lifeless flesh and potential virus carriers are trapped on it. A mountain of (plastic) waste can be seen in the background. Only the person who stands up, jumps and looks up is able to free him/herself from the situation. This energy has the potential to break out of old patterns of behaviour, but it also carries the risk - and at the same time the chance - of losing ground under their feet and thus being forced to seek a new basis for living together.
Artist Biography
Verena Kandler is an award winning visual artist from Augsburg. Her work deals with the processing of found materials from the areas of media, advertisement and consumer culture. It quotes or overwrites patterns of form and points to phenomena and (social) characteristics. The main concern of her art is the presentation in public space. This refers to places where the presence of art is not necessarily expected. Within the interplay of content and environment and in form of an intervention the work can develop an immediate and novel effect. In her latest work series, she processes plastic packaging and uses it as collage material. She is currently cooperating with environmental organisations, the Jewish Museum Augsburg and is planning an exhibition in a supermarket.
You can follow Verena's work at www.verenakandler.com and on Instagram @verenakandler.