Gush

“As I do at my studio, I approached the space and saw that the building’s parts are flexible, non-permanent. The concept here is of the instantaneous, temporary character of a wave. A wave that has swept through the space and splashed all over the walls, before washing back out to sea. Gush is about the ocean’s memory. A powerful force that has, through its destructive rush, given life to paintings, washes and memories, which can now grow away from the walls. By creating this idea of a sea cave, I was able to work with the sombre atmosphere of the hall”. Janaina Tschäpe’s work is a foray into a universe of polymorphous landscapes rife with embryonic forms, ambiguous characters and exotic botanical life. The artist takes the female body for her muse, exploring themes of the body and landscape, sex, death, renewal and transformation in her paintings, drawings, photographs and video installations. Her work seeks to give form to the trance of “art making”, portraying not a dream world, but the sensation of being in one.