Lichtenberg Studios

Im Januar hatte ich ein Stipendium in den Lichtenberg-Studios. Bei einem Besuch des Stasimuseum (ASTAK e.V.) Berlins in Lichtenberg entdeckte ich politische Bildteppiche der DDR. Die Motive der Teppiche begeisterten mich, so das ich sie für Collagen nutzte.

Die Rückseite wird zur Vorderseite. Das Material aus Silikon und Farbe imitiert einerseits die Teppichstruktur ist aber auch vom Zufall geleitet und nicht so genau steuerbar wie die industriell hergestellten Teppiche der „DDR-Fabrikation“. Sie sehen aus, wie aus den Fugen geratene Teppiche und haben eine organische Anmutung. Unregelmäßige lange Silikonfäden hängen an der Vorderseite und wechseln sich mit kürzeren Reliefstrukturen ab.

Coming from Helsinki to Berlin, there is one almost invisible and easy to get use to visual impact that strike me; the large amount of spray paint and marker pen scribbling in the streets. In addition there are a lot of

stickers and posters, all this almost non-existing in Helsinki. To me what is interesting is which marks are purely personal and which ones are driven

by commercial motivated impulses. And further more, can one see the people’s expressions amidst the vast array of signs and images screaming for attention?

I  wanted to express myself in the streets of Lichtenberg area, but not to buy a marker pen or spray paint. Instead I took photos of especially

interesting spots (to me), with many layers of expressions. Afterwards I was drawing people (I had met in the same area) on the paper copies of the

photos, and then hanging them back on the same place where I first took the images. Then I was waiting with high expectations that somebody would tag my images, saying that they had noticed them among all other visuals.

The idea behind (Talk Talk Lichtenberg) is to play and mix photo, drawing and text, and to create small stories as a kind of anonymous conversation.

(the images are a mix of documentation and the actual photo with drawings and tags)

Best wishes,

rita