Rosemarie Trockel
Virgin Islands (2011)
For her edition of Texte zur Kunst Rosemarie Trockel’s has chosen a motive form her new series entitled “Virgin Islands”. This body of work consists of collages of photos which the artist has edited using contemporary image processing applications. Apart from changes of the color spectrum Trockel has incorporated an “island” based on a distorted human face in every image of the series. The pictures show friends of the artist among them Michel Houellebecq and Jutta Koether. In the image Trockel has dedicated to Texte zur Kunst a morphed female face can be seen floating in the dark space of the picture. Its obscurantism gives the scene a dream like character. Is the colorful square related to the opium pipe the lying figure holds in its arm? In this case it is not quite clear any more if the distorted image is a planed digital interference or a subjective perceptual disorder. Seen in this light, the question arises what clear-sightedness means in general, a problem the spectator is also confronted with: A special printing technique, a digital premium pigment print, draws him/her directly into the deep velvety black surface of the pigments while at the same time emphasizing their haptic qualities. As typical for her work Trockel examines also in her edition the sexual and gendered undercurrents of common terms, sentences, relationships and images which she raises literally to the surface. In this process she often does not make any direct references, but offers the spectator a more intuitive set of possible meanings like the morphed face. In this sense, the title “Virgin Islands” does not alone refer to real places – i.e. to British “protectorates” - , or Caribbean dream destinations which are every day places of desire and projections, but also to (male) fantasies like the concept of virginity.
For Texte zur Kunst Rosemarie Trockel has conceived a digital premium pigment print entitled “Virgin Islands”. The prints measure 50 x 50,5 cm and come in an edition of 60 + 20 APs. They are signed and numbered on the back and cost 550,- EUR plus shipping each.