Sybille Hotz
TRIPPEN
November 11, 2011 – December 24, 2011
One re-occurring theme in Hotz’s work is human sensory and cognitive perception – not only one’s own perceptive ability, but also the unique possibility humans have to learn from others. Books that elucidate the world in images, such as manuals, encyclopaedias and lexica, provide the inspiration for her motives, which she then sublimates and creates anew. Her freely arranged associative chains defy all scientific principles and can only be decoded on an individual level.
‘Trippen’ (as in trip, journey, travel) works on various levels with memory and experience, and take the viewer on a personal journey. The textiles, green, root-like objects hanging from the ceiling, ‘Merge’ into each other and can be interpreted as metaphors for the networking of memories. The motives found on the ‘Mnemosyne’ curtain, named after the Greek goddess of memory, were associatively chosen and positioned to offer the viewer absolute freedom when creating their own associative chains – it is a game with the memory triggered by the motives. The eye glides over thematic clusters of stitched drawings and pieces them together to form a mind map. In the art of mnemonics, memory aids or mnemonic tricks have been developed to help with the orientation and navigation of memory. Some of the motives disappear in the convoluted curtain while others remain clearly visible. Information is stacked and re-organised. There are further ways of reading the motives and more possibilities for association when the curtain is viewed from behind. ‘Popek’ is more specific: more than forty stitched drawings based on the artist’s longplanned trip to Peru and Bolivia. Inspired by memories Hotz gives free reign to her thread. Nourished by freedom and an insatiable urge to explore she sets off on an inner journey.
‘Trippen’ unifies tactile, visual and cognitive perception and combines the different image worlds found in ‘Merging’, ‘Mnemosyne’ and ‘Popek’. Spatial levels are condensed and become physically palpable
‘Trippen’ (as in trip, journey, travel) works on various levels with memory and experience, and take the viewer on a personal journey. The textiles, green, root-like objects hanging from the ceiling, ‘Merge’ into each other and can be interpreted as metaphors for the networking of memories. The motives found on the ‘Mnemosyne’ curtain, named after the Greek goddess of memory, were associatively chosen and positioned to offer the viewer absolute freedom when creating their own associative chains – it is a game with the memory triggered by the motives. The eye glides over thematic clusters of stitched drawings and pieces them together to form a mind map. In the art of mnemonics, memory aids or mnemonic tricks have been developed to help with the orientation and navigation of memory. Some of the motives disappear in the convoluted curtain while others remain clearly visible. Information is stacked and re-organised. There are further ways of reading the motives and more possibilities for association when the curtain is viewed from behind. ‘Popek’ is more specific: more than forty stitched drawings based on the artist’s longplanned trip to Peru and Bolivia. Inspired by memories Hotz gives free reign to her thread. Nourished by freedom and an insatiable urge to explore she sets off on an inner journey.
‘Trippen’ unifies tactile, visual and cognitive perception and combines the different image worlds found in ‘Merging’, ‘Mnemosyne’ and ‘Popek’. Spatial levels are condensed and become physically palpable
