Ingredients

Artist list

Iris Bodemer

By grouping the most recent works together under the title "Ingredienzen" (Ingredients), Iris Bodemer pursues a topic that has been adumbrated in earlier groups of works time and again and now is becoming the central theme: the interplay between the different types of material, the combination of the ingredients which may subsequently merge and form a conglomerate, an entity. It requires a great deal of experience in handling and experimenting with the most diverse materials to capture and deploy the subtle nuances, the balance and the deliberate imbalance in the effects created by each type of material. There are stronger and weaker materials some of which immediately release emotions and some of which come to be perceived as smooth and harmless. Some of them seem to be infinitely heavy while others evoke pure lightness. Gold foil can either appear noble and precious or, if used differently, resemble crumpled up aluminum foil while a household foil may as well convey a spirit of equanimity that is not affected by time and change. In Iris Bodemer's works, pearls, gold, gemstones, wood, branches of corals, finds, pieces of fur and many other ingredients show their peculiarities and particularities. They are identical with themselves and, at the same time, they are part of the overall design and of the structure developed by the artist. This creates a tension similar to the dense and concentrated effect evoked by the combination of drawing and jewelry. It is the whole set of ingredients that provides the added value, without any one of them getting lost. Each element can be distinctly identified but it is only in their togetherness that they are more than each of them alone.

Cornelie Holzach