Student Review:
Isolde Krams at Bell-Roberts
by Mark Oppenheimer
On first viewing, 'Lost and Found' seems to defy explanation. Isolde Krams litters her sculptures with a stream of apparently unrelated symbols. Fish, fire, knives and a mounted rabbit's head are tattooed onto the skin of an old woman in a state of undress. Those images reappear on a set of pliable rubber paintings but they look like they have been reinterpreted by a child and transformed into colorful but distorted reproductions of their counterparts.
The unexplained and recurring symbols were only the beginning of a journey that is not unlike reading a psychedelic detective novel. My attempt to fit the pieces of the puzzle together was presided over by a looped video of an androgynous beauty pageant winner wearing the earth as a dress and further equipped with a set of prosthetic breasts and oversized beehive wig. She performed magic tricks and played at mock seduction behind the safety of a mounted television, while my search for meaning was fruitless. Miss World's cohorts wandered around her pretending that the futile activities they endlessly performed were imbued with great significance. I moved into another part of the exhibition to escape and found myself in a room apparently inspired by Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights.
A young Eve stood between the mounted head of a crimson elephant, fitted with garden umbrella tusks, and a delicately crafted fish that had been trapped and prevented from escaping, with the aid of leather restraints. In the corner of the room a piece of hide, with the same tattooed marks as the woman next door, hung from the wall suspended by fishhooks. I got the ominous feeling that I was looking at a piece of human hide put on display to placate the displaced fish and the angry elephant.
It was only after an extended conversation with Krams that I was able to gain a clearer understanding of her artistic project. She claims to be motivated by a concern for animals and the natural environment because these subjects lack a voice to express and defend themselves. Her work is in part an attempt to draw our attention to the abuse nature has suffered because of our often blatant disregard for the wellbeing of our environment. Her ecological awareness grows out of her desire to give a voice to the voiceless and this stands beside her concern for the plight of women.
Through the creation of a new Eve, Krams has attempted to dislodge and reinterpret the mythology surrounding the Garden of Eden. Over the centuries the original myth has been used as a justification for the vilification of women. That this myth of origin is so deeply embedded in our cultural history has meant it has had a significant impact on the way that we view ourselves in relation to God and each other. Krams provides us with an opportunity to re-evaluate Eve�s role in the Garden of Eden and simultaneously reshape our cultural history.
This new Eve does not owe her existence to an Adam; she looks like she has erupted from the womb of the earth covered in dust and mud. Although she is crafted in the form of a child, she demands to be treated with reverence and caution. She stands, elevated on an earthen mound, at the end of a carpet. Here piercing eyes look out onto the film starring the post-human Miss world and her face betrays a feeling of disgust towards her descendants.
The film, so beautiful it almost looks artificial, is not merely an amusing reflection on our absurd behaviour, it constitutes an indictment of our treatment of the earth. Krams creates a post-apocalyptic landscape populated by a group of creatures that appear to be the only survivors. The character Schweinehund, played by the artist, epitomizes our own brutish and self-serving behaviour. A dead fish is proudly strapped to his obese belly, his oversized ears have purposefully been stuffed with ear plugs to ignore the other characters and he limits communication to a series of grunts, burps and farts. These vulgar gestures are coupled with a strong territorial urge to thrust flags into the earth and assert ownership.
Live performances by Miss World and friends have previously been integrated into Krams' exhibitions and it is unfortunate that the video format cannot fully recreate the interaction that would otherwise occur between audience, the fixed works and the living sculptures. This lack could have been made up for if the layout of the exhibition facilitated an increased dialogue between the works on display.
Krams demonstrates her ability to fuse the natural with the artificial through her creation of a hanging carpet that resembles an archaeological dig conducted in a burial ground for lost and disfigured toys. Mutilated action figures share this latex tapestry with shards of a pottery tea set, a porcelain baby's leg, a copper globe and numerous other artifacts. The work is punctuated by a partially submerged human ear and an eyeball trapped in leather casing. Krams' repeated use of eyeballs is unnerving; they obliterate the distinction between the observer and the observed and give the impression that the viewer is being scrutinized and evaluated by the works. This device works well as a way of compelling her audience to accept a level of responsibility for the way that the earth is being treated.
There is a strong tension throughout 'Lost and Found' between its use of absurd imagery, rooted in a denial of inherent meaning and its ethical concern with conservation of the natural environment. This tension does not always serve to benefit the exhibition, but it must be acknowledged that the show is only a juncture in an on-going artistic endeavour. Since Krams is in the process of creating new characters to interact with those already in existence, 'Lost and Found' should not be judged as a stand-alone project. The fact that the exhibition is part of a work-in-progress contributes to its initial inaccessibility, but it does mean that Krams will have the opportunity in later exhibitions to resolve some of the tensions that reside in her current work. 'Lost and Found' demands a lot of effort from its audience but I think the collection of works is compelling enough to warrant our attention.
Opens: August 31
Closes: September 24
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