Ulrike Theusner
Printed Oeuvre

A selection of etchings from various series from Ulrike Theusner’s (b. 1982 in Frankfurt/Oder) recent printed oeuvre is here presented, featuring ­the tropes and motifs which have haunted her work from 2006 to now: political turmoil, ghosts, rituals and false idols; broken idylls, the fragmentation of society, and the many possible reactions of the individual to such spiritual and societal homelessness.

Etching is an originary and continued technique for Theusner, on aluminium and copper plates, processed with monotype, aquatint, or drypoint. Published in small editions, and occasionally hand-finished with ink, pastels or watercolour, these works by Theusner are uncanny and nightmarish, but simultaneously satirical visions or transformations of and for the modern world. In both form and content, then, Theusner’s printed oeuvre might appear like a modernisation of Francisco Goya’s (1746 Fuendetodos – 1828 Bordeaux) Los Caprichos, the inspiration for her Weird Feelings and Sweet Bird of Youth series (works from which are featured in this exhibition).

Like the viewer outside of these works, the figures in them - at times voluptuously puffy, at times skeletal - are all confronted by fragmentary modernity. Taken as a whole these works may be taken as a parable for the individual’s reaction to the world: do we drown ourselves in drink (as in Puffy Faced Decay)? or celebrate carelessly (as in Der Triumph)? or simply wait (as in Odessa Bar)? Theusner perhaps provides her own answer with her Sweet Bird of Youth series (seven works from which appear at the end of this exhibition). Wide-eyed, confronting both the viewers and the real world, these figures, modelled after Theusner’s closest friends, are aware of the shape and state of the world. Relating her works again to Goya, Theusner says of these works: ‘The Sleep of Reason produces monsters and calls for mindfulness and critical judgement in times when reality appearance can hardly be distinguished’.