Tine Furler - Vererbungslinie Vampyropoda
17 January—11 April 2009
Galerie Michael Janssen Berlin
Tine Furler’s pictures constitute large-scale photo collages on painted backgrounds. The protagonists of these most recent works are misfits. Here, disparate beings are united in a single body, defying the observer’s natural expectations in the process. Alliances are made which simply disregard temporal and natural boundaries.
Furler has chosen the title VEREBUNGSLINIE VAMPYROPODA (VAMPYROPODA HERITAGE LINE) for the current exhibition at the Michael Janssen Gallery. The giant octopus (Vampyropoda) spreads its eight arms out evenly, these are all of equal length and strength. This picture is intended as a symbol for the way in which heritage processes take place in a natural setting. The coalescent genetic characteristics determine the phenomenon’s final form in equal measure. All creatures exist simultaneously, defying every spatial and temporal definition.
A male head, adorned with a pair of sunglasses, is placed atop a female body dressed in garments from the Rococo period, complete with overhanging hooped skirt. In this large-scale picture, entitled Burgherren (Lords of the Castle) (200 x 400 cm), the castle‘s probable owners have been dressed in more or less elegant female attire and lined up for a fashion show. The meandering path to the medieval residence functions as a red carpet, on which the gentlemen appear to feel ill at ease, something which could be due to their high-heeled shoes or narrow corsets.
Children play a notable role in Tine Furler‘s new works. Tightly bound together, as if caught in a cocoon, they appear rather dissatisfied. They gaze at the observer through a magnified eye, triggering a combination of discomfort and sympathy. A well-nourished child, which probably emanated from a Baroque painting where it stood at the side of the Mother of God, lends its body to an angry wolf, helping it attain regal dignity.
Tine Furler finds the models for all her photo collages in posters, newspaper cuttings and / or cardboard cut-outs. Instead of canvas, Furler uses wood to frame her works, which she transforms into painted backgrounds. She usually paints these in shades of dark brown, black and purple, which intensify the pictures‘ disturbing auras.
Tine Furler, Vererbungslinie Vampyropoda, Installation view, 2009, Galerie Michael Janssen, Berlin
