"Storied Bodies"

Item 46 of 116 in On the Edge 2022
"Storied Bodies" by Gabriela Hirt
 
Title:
Storied Bodies
Artist:
Gabriela Hirt
Size:
84" x 50"
Medium:
Paper, tape, glue, acrylic painting scraps
Price:
CAN$5,000.00
Not Available For Sale
Description:
Storied bodies is exploring the human body as a vessel holding trauma, collective history and cultural programming determining our ability to connect and overcome discriminative thinking.
In this work I investigate themes of isolation and belonging by placing marked abstracted human figures into relationship with space, time and each other. Living in Canada as an immigrant who has grown up in post-Holocaust Germany, it is of particular interest to me how trauma and collective guilt can keep us mired in constructed concepts of hierarchy perpetuating colonial injustice. My stylized people might be antagonizing, yet they always have more in common than not. This is conveyed by their similar fabric, colour, marks and line-work. You might say, it is a lack of skin laying bare the vulnerability and woundedness of victim, perpetrator and joyful dancer alike. Questions of power imbalance are relayed by size, positioning and movement of the figures. Each of the 25 figures is about 16 inches high. They are floating in the air suspended on nylon threads tied to a metal grid attached to the ceiling.

Exhibiting Online Only.