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marianne mettler
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Palazzo Radetzki, Milano April 2015
Venice Art House March 2015
Palazzo Ca'Zanardi, Venice February 2015
Los Angeles Center for Digital Art May 2015
Exhibitions 2015
Los Angeles Center for Digital Arts
Palazzo Ca'Zanardi, Venice
Venice ArtHouse
Palazzo Radetzki Milano
March Group Exhibition in Venice
Venice Art House Opening 13th March 2015
February Group Exhibition in Venice
Palazzo Ca'Zanardi Opening 26th February 2015
Say yes, my love
Narcissus, seeing his own image mirrored in a spring and falling in love with it, is the basis for our project. The roots for modern physical culture lie in ancient Greece and ancient Rome. These cultures have depicted the beauty of the human body to last for eternity. In addition, much that has been established as the ideal of human facial and bodily forms during ancient times still is essential in modern perception of beauty. But while the former prepared the body for war, the latter hardens it for everyday rivalry in fitness temples – today, everyone fights for and against oneself.
Moreover, sexuality today is suppressed by most religions. Over the millennia there arose on the one hand an individual uptightness, and on the other hand an ambiguity which derives deeply from religion. In the eons before religious ruling, contact with one‘s sexuality and one‘s own body was experienced by a much more genuine approach and was thus totally more natural.
A Narcissus, however, does not sense discomfort in his love for himself and is not at all scandalized by doing so. In a society where egocentrism plays a main part in economic survival, the hunger for approval has become a surrogate drug. Our gods today do not call themselves Aphrodite or Apollo and yet what we worship and what we look for today is still ruled by appearances – the little difference being that, today, if what we see does not satisfy our needs instead of the sculptor it will be plastic surgeon who will help out. Now, the following black and white pictures combine both aspects and worlds. They simultaneously create distance and proximity. Both, old sculpture and new selfie transport the same posed nature. They create the illusion of the real by appearing unnatural. The viewer becomes a voyeur, the observing entity of a world in which he participates time and time again in a more or less voluntary fashion.
To conclude, in each of us there lives a Narcissus. Narcissism manifests itself on different levels. That is exactly where our project gains its foothold.
Our imaginative worlds allow for different interpretations that will hold a mirror up to whoever takes a look.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
Milano - Palazzo Radetzki
Future Identities - Hybrid Effects
April 14/19th
Los Angeles - Digital Art Center
LACDA 11 Year Anniversary Represented Artists Exhibit
Run dates for exhibit:
April 9-May 14
In the mirror of Narcissus