PORTFOLIO – INDIVIDUAL MYTHOLOGIES
It is a game between dissolution and emergence of figuration, which offers the viewer enough space to project their own personal interpretation (Individual Mythologies). The large-format painting HADES (2025, Oil on Canvas, 215 x 330 cm), is an expressive depiction of the underworld as a symbol of the unconscious. One possible interpretation is HADES as a shadow world, whose inhabitants and scenes only reveal themselves upon longer contemplation. With reference to Greek mythology, the depiction also addresses the process and conditions for liberation from unconscious tendencies, as exemplified by Orpheus and Eurydike. Orpheus was not allowed to look back at Eurydice while leaving Hades with her; otherwise, she must remain there. As represented by a figure in the right half of the painting, washed ashore with raised hands in the river Styx. Concern and fear ultimately cause the venture of liberation to fail. Furthermore, this myth refers to a matriarchal origin. “Human existence was considered a chain of descent and ascent. Death and return beyond individual dying.” (Die tanzende Göttin, 2001) According to Heide Göttner-Abendroth, there was no death as an unchangeable end in matriarchal societies. Thus, Hades is not solely a world of the dead or shadows, but a transitional world toward new birth. “Becoming, existence, and passing” as forces of an eternal cycle.
In the oilpainting GOLGOTHA from the Eremitage-series, 2022, my own experience with women’s care work came to the fore. In the artistic expression only the intensity counts, in which the sensual, body-related momentum takes on present form, in order to produce the content that transcends the subjective space of experience. A density of color and light developed through an expressive brushstroke, which describes the intensity that each individual experiences in the cycle of “becoming, being, and passing away.” In context of the EREMITAGE series, this also resulted in an iconological recourse to the Passion of Christ. Crucifixion and resurrection culminate in one pictorial representation, similar to medieval book illumination.
According to Harald Szeemann, who introduced the concept of Individual Mythologies in the context of documenta 5, Kassel/Germany, 1972: “In terms of the outward appearance the Individual Mythologies are a phenomenon without a common denominator, however they can be understood as part of the idea of an art history of intensity, which isn´t oriented by formal criteria alone, but by the perceptible identity of intention and expression.” (Szeemann, 1981, p. 88) But what exactly does this mean? In her opening speech at my solo exhibition LICHTUNGEN at the Galerie der Moderne, Stift Seitenstetten, Austria, 2023, art historian Angelika Doppelbauer stated the following:
ON THE FIRST DAY (Becoming) 2023, oil on canvas, 100 x 50 cm
“Harald Szeemann understood Individual mythologies as an intense, subjective expression of personal identity, emphasizing one’s own, individually experienced aspects, which he attributed a strong psychological dimension. The representation of individual mythologies aims to give a visual form to unconscious notions of personal mysticism, personal rites, and dream imagery. This results in a highly personal form of expression, consisting of individual signs and symbols that often appear mysterious to outsiders.”
“At the time the concept of individual mythologies emerged, they provided a counterpoint to rational and conceptual artistic views. In retrospect, the individualization of the worldview signifies a step towards the end of grand narratives, moving towards a pluralistic perspective on reality, composed of many different subjective viewpoints. Every person has individual mythologies. They develop over the course of one’s life and are part of subjective knowledge of the world. How one perceives and views the world shapes their memories, contents of the mind, and consequently the entire life. This internal attitude is often unconscious yet significantly influences actions and experiences. It is individual and usually not shared with others. In the artistic process, these individual contents come to light and become visualized.”
POWER OF DECISION (Being) 2023, Oil on Canvas, 100 x 50 cm
In the painting “Garden of Gethsemane II,” I describe this moment of extreme emotional charge and the necessary regulating element. They are part of the individual “hero’s journey” (C. G. Jung) and globally fill the contents of our fairy tales, myths, and spiritual narratives. Thus, a dense, covering, gestural brushstroke on the left side of the image, which can also be interpreted as a human figure, is contrasted by the right half of the image rendered in delicate, translucent pastel tones.
GARDEN GETHSEMANE II (Passing away) 2023, Oil on Canvas, 80 x 60 cm
“The garden serves here as a metaphor for Christ’s solitude in the face of his impending passion. The running color streaks suggest tears and perhaps are even a foreboding of the blood that will soon flow. The contrast between opaque and translucent brushwork corresponds with the physical person and the contact with the transcendent”, describes art historian Angelika Doppelbauer. They are two sides of a coin, that enter in grand narratives and in everyday stories of the individual as well in a necessary conflict. In these zones, growth and development are possible; the hero’s journey begins.
FARBEBEKENNEN 