COLOGNE.- Priska Pasquer’s Feminine exhibition is devoted to strong female positions. Taking centre stage here are the works of Ulrike Rosenbach (born 1943), one of the main pioneers of performance and media art.
Since the 1970s, Ulrike Rosenbach has been calling female typifications and gender stereotypes into question. Her experimental works have an enormous influence on younger generations of artists. Feminine reflects this and juxtaposes Rosenbach’s works with those of a younger female artist in each case. While London-based artist Angela Brandys (born 1988) plays this role in the first exhibition, Feminine II in February 2019 will feature works by Johanna Reich (born 1977). With their idiosyncratic works, the artists address topical and highly sensitive issues as well as occupying a prominent position in the contemporary debate.
The experimental works of Ulrike Rosenbach have been showcased at international exhibitions as well as at documenta 6 (1977) and documenta 8 (1987). Ulrike Rosenbach received the Gabriele Münter Prize in 2004 and was presented with the Rheinischer Kunstpreis art award in 2012 in recognition of her life’s work.
Angela Brandys’ works have only been seen in the United Kingdom to date. This autumn, Priska Pasquer presented them to great acclaim at Paris Photo and is now showing them for the first time in Germany.
Ulrike Rosenbach (born 1943) has been creating experimental works with photography, performance video and multimedia installations since 1972. Rather than seeing video as a documentation medium, Ulrike Rosenbach harnesses it for innovative and artistic purposes. In her “Action/Performances” and “Video Live Actions”, she was one of the first artists – of any gender – to work with live video cameras. She saw the video camera as the perfect medium for defining her role as a female artist, incorporating herself as the subject of her own art while calling into question traditional female depictions at the same time. Ulrike Rosenbach’s themes are as highly topical and relevant as ever today.
In her famous series “Art is a Criminal Acdon” (1969/1970), Ulrike Rosenbach launches a frontal attack on male self-representation and art production. The template for this was Andy Warhol’s “Double Elvis” screen printing – depicting a pop icon of mythical, aggressive, sexually charged masculinity. In a radical role reversal, Ulrike Rosenbach transforms herself into a female Elvis, thereby dismantling stereotypes of virile self-images and common clichés of femininity. Priska Pasquer presents this famous motif group together with other photographic works, film stills, videos, drawings and collages by the artist.
