Deborah Sengl. Killed to be dressed

04.06.2010 - 09.07.2010

ROHDE CONTEMPORARY, København / Danmark

For many years Deborah Sengl has studied and analyzed social structures. Power relations, dependence on systems and interactions between offender and victim are among the cornerstones of her work. Issues of identity and importance of our outer shell is in focus!

Medicine, physical education and nutrition are examples of the older areas of interest. In her new series of 'Dressed to be Killed' Deborah Sengl focuses on the relationship between humans and animals. The starting point is not, although it may seem so at first glance, a matter of welfare, but instead an illustration of symbolic power through fur fashion....

For centuries it has been among the most prestigious to dress oneself in animal skins. The more exotic and wild the animals, the more prestigious the fur fashion. Since we no longer live in the Stone Age, where people from a pure survival instinct hunted, ate and wore the animals, it is now only about fashion. The absurdity of this, that you hide behind or under the skin of another once living being is not something which most fur bearers think of.

In the exhibition ’Dressed to be Killed’ Deborah Sengl turnst he situation round, so that we see familiar animals, enveloped in our - human - skin. Body parts such as finger or nipples dangling around the neck or the sleeves of ermine and fox. What usually seems very natural, is suddenly both disgusting and annoying.

The works do not appeal to our environmentally consciousness, but instead to our understanding and sensibility. Or maybe we are considering what color human skin which would suit our beloved Yorkshire Terrier best in the park in winter.

Deborah Sengl will present new works, both painting and sculpture. The show is her very first solo show in Scandinavia.

[Quelle: http://www.rohdecontemporary.com/]