ALEXANDRA WEIDMANN

Paintings

Graphics

Sculptures

Fair 2023: „Women in Arts“

After the 3., 4., and 5. FATart Fair 2020, 2021, and 2022 | Women* in arts fair I had decided to apply for the international 6. FATart Fair 2023 | Women in Arts in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. And I received an acceptance letter. The fair accomodates 100 contemporary women artists on two floors of a former worsted yarn spinning mill with 3200 sqm. Here a short description of some of the paintings shown at the fair.

The role of women was defined by men in patriarchal societies. A negative role attribution is shown in numerous myths, three of which I have combined in the painting titled Die Macht der Rollenzuschreibung (The Power of Roll Assignment).

The most effective is certainly the fall, which led to the expulsion from paradise and the loss of immortality. Blame is attributed solely to Eve for eating an apple from the tree of knowledge, against the commandment of the Christian God. Only through the ability to recognize, the ability to distinguish right and wrong, does a human being become a human being. My Eve quotes Dürer's famous picture. Lucrecia's arm, holding the dagger, comes from Cranach. After being raped, she has to kill herself out of honor for her husband. The hair ending in a snake represents Medusa. After being raped by Poseidon, Athena did not take revenge on Poseidon, but transformed Medusa into a gorgon with the well-known snake hair.
These role attributions are produced by the men in power, whose suit legs and shoes rotated by 90° can be seen. The effectiveness of such derogatory attributions to women is not over yet, but the balance of power is changing. To describe the past, the picture can also be rotated by 90° so that the men in power are standing on top of the woman. If you are optimistic, the picture can also be rotated about -90°, so that the lords of creation fall into the depth.

A second painting named Strandgut (Flotsam) shows the sea god Triton, the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, with a fish tail in the bathtub. Even gods have to save water in times of climate change.

A third painting named Ohmm shows a woman sitting on a perch in close company with chickens. It shows a possibility of peaceful coexistence in an increasingly populated world.