Landsberg - As old as human history and a topic that affects everyone: not only Greek and Roman mythology dealt with “metamorphoses”, art also takes on this “miracle”, explains art historian Birgit Kremer in her introductory words the opening of the eleventh exhibition in the Zedergalerie. "Metamorphoses" is her name simply. Works by Gudrun Daum, Eva Kunze and Stefan Wehmeier show that you can get closer to the topic in your own way - and make the change in the external shape, but also the transformation that takes place inside, visible.
While rummaging through her grandmother's old fairy tale book, childhood memories came up, says Landsberg artist Gudrun Daum. And an idea. “If they haven't died, they are still alive today,” it says at the end of fairy tales. But what happens to the "main actors"? In her series from 2018, Daum tries to relocate and modernize fairy tales in our time. This also transforms the “protagonists”. They are now of adulthood and all quite emancipated. Rapunzel with smartphone in hand. The Cinderella as a rebellious punk. Little Red Riding Hood has the wolf in her hand as a play doll - that leaves room for interpretation. "Every figure goes its own way," says Daum. “The works leave room for hope, confidence, courage and imagination”. With "energetic style" and a brushstroke,that almost gets lost at the edges, pictures emerged, sometimes more, sometimes less - depending on how the subject tolerates it.
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"Veiled / unveiled" is the name of a series by Eva Kunze.
Parts of it are also exhibited in the cedar gallery.
© Schmelzle
The Munich artist Eva Kunze, on the other hand, approaches the subject in a completely different way. Her 24 oil works are more about the internal relationship. You never know: is it a pupation or is it a 'hatch'? Says Birgit Kremer. “Somehow everything has to do with transformation,” says the artist herself. In general, her art is about life and feelings. But also about moods, connections between head and heart, thinking and feeling. Certain symbols keep appearing. The color egg pink. The heart - connected to the head. Wings as a symbol of freedom. The transitions from one series to the next are fluid with her. “Veiled / Unveiled” is the name of another series for which she drew inspiration from fashion catalogs in order to reflect the zeitgeist. The point here is: "What do I show of myself, what do not?"she says. Again and again in her works an internal and external interplay becomes clear, so Kremer - combined with the question 'Who am I'?
The ceramic work by Stefan Wehmeier, who - based on a self-portrait - shows a series of ceramic heads, is completely different again. Everyone special and unique. Because everyone is transformed: the heads were deformed, compressed, dropped, destroyed and given a completely different shape while they were still unfired. "Destruction creates something new," says Wehmeier. That is something positive. The different glazes also underline the visual transformations. Very moving, often colored surfaces, but sometimes also dark and monochrome - different personality states, a reflection of one's own self, which is always in motion and never the same, says Kremer.
At Stefan Wehmeier, twelve heads represent twelve months, a whole year, four seasons.
"However, you could go on with this indefinitely, because we are never finished with our transformations," says Kremer.
That is a life issue.
"Become, who you are.
Try to perfect yourself ”.
The works of art try to mirror this way and show that this is a process.
It is important to trace your own metamorphoses and to reflect on them.
In the best case scenario, a larva will eventually become a butterfly.
Reflecting on their own transformations - everyone has to do that for themselves. But tracing the paths of the three artists, that goes on until December 30th in the glass rooms of the Zedergalerie.
