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marianne mettler
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BETWEEN || US (THE DISTANCE)
The color black is often associated in our culture with elegance, darkness and sophistication. The color black relates to the hidden, the secretive and the unknown, it keeps things bottled up inside, hidden from the world. Black applies to us as a color of suffering and death. Black is the absorption of all color and the absence of light.
Black hides.
That a male-dominated society hides the beauty and grace of their women acts under a black, shapeless cloth that irritating us.
These women are not authorized to challenged authority in an operative environment that severely constrains their role and imposes enormous restrictions on their daily behavior. These women are wearing an uniform - a black uniform – that does not allowed personalities.
A sea of black-clad women engulfs us. What evokes this engulfment? Who hides behind this black clothes? A statement, which refers mainly to the female part of society. A form of oppression towards women because it keeps the women from being viewed equal to men. It’s just a male production with female actresses. And it’s not – unfortunately - the result of a cross-gender acting.
A yellow raincoat sets a light among the darkness. The swift succession of two-dimensional image pairs – black and yellow creates spatial effects that remain unstable to the last. It’s like an hypersensitive dance in which the characters are searching a physical symbiosis. It’s like a stage, where the artist creates opportunities for ‘thinking differently’ and expanding the borders. Encounters and approaches are suddenly possible.
Cultural differences are immediately visible on all sides and require a large degree of tolerance and understanding but when we are naked, it’s like we are all the same. Underneath each cloth a man is a man, without no rules and no gender questions.
Where are the ambivalences now?
Angela Matarise
Curator
LACDA 12th Anniversary Members Exhibit
April 14-May 6, 2016
Artists' Reception: Saturday April 16, 7-9pm
art walk preview Thursday April 14
Adam James Butcher, Alexandria Donovan, Allesandro Cima, Andy Lomas, Bethany Taylor, Carlos Luna James, Carolyn Doucette, Colleen Corcoran, Daniel Leighton, Darren Hepburn, David Dixon. David Dumo, David Feldman, David Hudson, David Teng-Olsen, Denis Gillingwater, td {border: 1px solid #ccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;} Don Bergland, Douglas Hill, Elizabth Newman Kuiper, Gillian Ware, Gwen Adler, James Mai, Jason Locklyer, Jennifer Sharpe. Jesse Russell Brooks, Jill Rickabaugh, John Brooks, John Haubrich, John Waiblinger, Jon Tarry, JT Burke, Kate MacDonald, Kathryn Jacobi, Klaus Bittner, Laura Krasnow, Leigh Brodie, Mark Neumann, Martin Amorous, td {border: 1px solid #ccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;} Marianne Mettler, Matthew Barlow. Melinda Smith. Michael Wright. Ori / Gerard Frances. Paula Haapalahti, Ron Janowich. Roxanne Brousseau Felio, Sheri Neva, Stephen Mingle. Steven K. James, Susanne Belcher. td {border: 1px solid #ccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;} Tibor Foeldes, Toban Nichols, Trevor Messersmith, Victor Acevedo. Wade Harrell, Diane Fox, John F. Walte, Melissa Lambert, Michael Tyson Murphy, John Largaespada, Leslie Tucker
Video Installation
BETWEEN || US (THE DISTANCE)
I have started my project Between || US (The distance) beginning 2016 after my return from Iran. A trip through a country that shows many specific features especially for us women. My yellow raincoat which I had packed into my luggage was my outfit during the whole trip and gave occasion to many discussions. The first part of this project originated immediately after my return. A crowd of women in black uniforms, no individuality admitted, has left a deep impression and led me to the creation of this photo project.
With the distance the faces more and more faded. What remains are the material covers. Replicable as a pre-printed stamp. In the second part of my project I realize with my team an experimental short. I add to the abstracted use of the material covers two more levels; music (Danilo Nonni) and movement (camera Jakob Pfaundler). A sensual bridge between the cultures. In the third part of my project Between || US (The Distance) I drive the abstraction forward. I internalize more and more the dissolution of the figures. During my creative process I realised that not only in their world but also in our world we are confronted with more and more faceless faces. The digital painting is the right tool for this process. I can express my emotional state with a single stroke.
