Mimicry

Description of the project

The border between Surrealism and Realism was always fascinating to me. I’ve been painting surrealistic landscapes, in which hidden objects can be found. For instance, in my oil paintings an aggregation of stones can form a human shape and once the viewer discovers the “hidden “object in the painting it becomes really obvious.  After a while, I felt the urge to paint on three dimensional surfaces such as a human faces, rather than only on a two dimensional canvas, and disguise them in a real life situation. Not only causes the plasticity of the face to bring out a way of painting that doesn't try to create something three-dimensional on a two dimensional canvas, but also it causes the painting itself to show contortions. These might be only small, but the deformation of a straight line, creates some sort of humoristic but also surrealistic image. However, if the viewer in real life moves only a few centimeters, the face is not disguised any more at all. The painted image gets deformed from a different angle and thus only the photo from a certain angle represents the harmony of a good camouflage. Like in the military or natures principle of mimicry, where camouflage answers it’s purpose to help the disguised to survive, many humans adapt to their surrounding on a daily basis In the hectic life of the 21 century, people wear certain cloth, put on make-up, show some sort of appropriate behavior and do all of this just to fit in. But rather than to make something only disappear, I want it to become obvious and stand out. This is one of the reasons, why I started my face-painting project, in which I go out into the nature or city and create something on the spot and then take a photo of it when it’s done. Thus the final art work is a combination of photography and painting. While painting the background on the face, the person becomes more and more integrated with what is surrounding it. The model has some sort of personal connection to the background and may influence the decision where I do the facepainting.  But in the end, it’s not only about showing the connection between the model and a particular spot, but also about the surrealistic image. The surrealistic image is an entrance, to a world, where imagination can unfold itself. For this purpose, I found out, that urban landscapes have a unique vibe, which is captured in the photo.

About the artist

Jana Röther, born in Hemer Germany in 1987, has always been interested in fine arts and the artistic involvement with her surroundings.  While going to high school, she took drawing, painting and etching classes in an artschool in Iserlohn and enrolled in the artakademie in Münster in 2007. Simultaneously she started studying biology and sport science at the University of Münster. These subjects have attributed to her inspirational source and can be found in her art as well. Furthermore travelling has been, and still is an important source of inspiration. 2004 Jana was living in Ohio, USA for a year on an exchange program. 2011 She went to Australia, where she was studying  in Sydney for one semester.

About been out, vol. 1

been out, vol. 1 is an all-arts competition for young artists exploring the parameters of art in the generation of digital natives. In these times of cross media and viral marketing, the open competition been out, vol. 1, organised by Bohème Précaire in cooperation with 2010LAB.tv, questions the art of the digital natives. Do they still know the meaning of art? Is there still a trade based on art?

According to the free-associating motto “go out, be out, include the outside”, the applicants should question and revalue the gridlocked meanings of urbanity, arts, architecture, and private and public sphere.

kunst.labor is the online-gallery of been out, vol. 1.

Further information: www.bohemeprecaire.com

And: www.facebook.com/beenout