Susanne Starke

Frau mit Frucht, 2007, Polymergips, bemalt, 73 x 45 x 90 cm

Frau mit Frucht, Detail, 2007, Polymergips, bemalt, 73 x 45 x 90 cm

Baum, 2007, Polymergips, bemalt, 240 x 70 x 70 cm

Garten der Lüste

04/05/2007 – 05/12/2007

The sculptures of Susanne Starke convince with their sensitive quality and communicate to the spectator almost lightness. Her imagery relates to works from art history and literature, whereas she uses her own body as a model for the creation of the actual sculptures. With her own distinct language she transforms the original motif into her own three-dimensional and personal reality.

The exhibition title “Garten der Lueste” (The Garden of Earthly Delight) references the painting by Hieronymus Bosch. He shows a utopian and bizarre paradise, which was considered as a reminder of human decay caused by sin due to is sexual energy. However, at the same time it captivates the peaceful depiction of human being and animal, living side by side and the becoming and passing of human nature.

Two new large-scale sculptures by Starke will be on display for her second solo exhibition at Diskus, interpreting the “Garden of Lust”. “Frau mit Frucht” (Woman with Fruit) depicts a hairy woman, representing a hybrid between human being and animal and invoking the original meaning of evolution and mythology. In the traditional sense the female body was often used as an allegory and herewith exaggerated and de-individualised. The body often refers to its close connection to nature and fertility, symbolising the ever-recurring circle of life. Although “Frau mit Frucht” could be a mythological figure, she does not represent a group or species, but an individual and questions as such the corporeal self-conception. The body, standing in the “Baum” (Tree) is only half visible and appears to be grown together with the tree or in the state of a transformation. Male and female body encounter each other.

Susanne Starke (*1973) lives and works in Dresden and Berlin. Her sculptures are currently exhibited in “Meisterklasse” at the Staedtische Galerie in Dresden and in the presentation of the collection of the Kunsthalle Mannheim.