Untitled. Winter Album 2016

Curator: Welcome. We are standing before a work from the "Kinder Album" series, an untitled watercolour painting from 2016. Editor: It certainly makes a startling impression! There's a rawness in the line work that creates a palpable sense of unease... Almost like a half-remembered dream tinged with melancholy. Curator: Precisely. Observe the composition: a stark room bisected by the strong horizontal of the doorway, leading our gaze into a further room where we observe what seems to be Santa stuck in the chimney. To the right a large vacant, undefined space. Editor: Note how the application of the watercolour, so translucent in areas, seems at odds with the density of detail around Santa. It underscores this dreamlike state. You almost feel you can feel the artist at work, grappling with process and content at once. It almost challenges the notion of high art by highlighting an exploratory feel. Curator: I find the juxtaposition of the figures—the central, forlorn nude and the children peeking—creates an enigmatic tension. It reminds me of similar uses of spatial and interpersonal tensions present within paintings such as those produced by Balthus. Editor: True, there's a discomfort created around traditional iconography, what is normally wholesome rendered uncomfortably. The use of watercolour lends itself so readily to a sense of ethereal vulnerability, its fragility mirrors the subject matter and adds another dimension to our reading. I think it becomes very evident when discussing erotic-art like this, you have to give more respect to the skill. Curator: It begs questions about childhood, the loss of innocence, the subversion of holiday expectations—a true provocation that exists formally and in its engagement with these varied semiotic elements. Editor: The piece offers a strange and unsettling commentary that feels intensely intimate. We get a brief peek into the mind of the artist which only leads to further, and deeper questions about the artistic journey itself.