A multi-disciplinary and multi-generational research project that explores bodily autonomy, instances of secrecy, deception, and magic within the history of photography.
Engelmacher (Modified Wire Hanger), 2023
Litho Crayon & Aquatint, 8 x 9 in on Rives BFK, 15 in x 16 in
Originally from Germany, I moved to New York in 1997. I became a US Citizen on June 9th, 2022, two weeks later the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
My grandmother died from an infection following an illegal abortion during the war in 1940s Germany. I don't have any of her photographs, but listening to the stories about her gave birth to images so vivid, that they entered my mind as a subjective experience.
Weaving together observations, memories and stories that emerged from conversations, with instances of secrecy, deception and magic within the history of photography, I use printmaking conceptually to call attention to ideas of things being in flux, and that we are looking at something live in a particular moment. Objectivity and subjectivity oscillate in a perpetual process of perception and thought. Where the world of things had just been rendered as formal language, accidents and inaccuracies that were introduced in the printmaking process release their provisional beauty; the markings and marks that come into view refer to traces of what’s left behind at the crossing of matter and memory, and bring about the unknown and mysteries, and our fascination or discomfort in the context of abortion. Space and time become tangible, only to disappear again behind the abstraction in the next moment like a deep but fleeting thought.
UNVERDÄCHTIGE INSTRUMENTE is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
Please consider contributing to the project by sharing individual stories with me directly and/or by making a tax-deductible donation through New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA).