“Journey
through the Forest with Virgil” installation by Birgit Deubner
Birgit R Deubner - Liverpool
based German artist - who travells the world for various art projects,
embraces artforms such as performance, film and installation. Actively
involved in the Liverpool art scene, Birgit exhibits this time
along other 23 local and international artists, part of "Meet
me at Sunset" curated by Nicole Bartos. Her installation
- a forests of paper ladders, is
a tribute to human life and the human condition of spiritual 'growth'
and ascendance. "I
make the ladder the tree in a forest which is created throughout
our lives. (…)"
Birgit R Deubner - “Journey
through the Forest with Virgil”, installation
Statement
"From Babylonian times man
has striven to reach the skies, to equal or rival divinity. So we continue
to climb
today still.
Be it to reach goodness
in life, be it in arrogance in the belief of our individual or collective
supremacy (political for example, also see Babel as a reference…),
be it in the hope that things will improve from bad to better or good
to greater. We may seek love or status in society, godly/ divine blessing.
The aim is always upwards, ascent. The ladder describes an unstable,
un-secured journey, the higher one reaches on it, the more risky, the
more treacherous the fall, a journey, also, that at it''''s end may lead
to nothing… or to the heavens… this is open to interpretation.
The ladder is the most immediate vehicle to ascent and in the way that
I use it I also think of it as signifying the growth of trees, I make
the ladder the tree in a forest which is created throughout our lives.
(…)
To achieve an abstracted folk tale/ dreamlike/ readable but non-direct
narrative with references to today''''s society''''s focal points as
well as to those of past times."
Recent Exhibitions (selected):
2008/tbc “The Watchers / 7 Giants”, installation
of seven 3.5m tall, cardboard-clad, watchtowers, light (work ready,
searching
for an appropriate venue)
2008/11 Solo Exhibition, “Dungbeetle and Siyphus”, 5 channel
video installation. Portuguese Consulate, Manchester
2008/09 Group exhibition “Baltic Frame”, curated by Tony
Smith from Arena Studios; Liverpool Independents Biennial; presenting “Dungbeetle
and Sisyphus”, film and performance, 7 minutes looped
2008/09 “Dungbeetle and Sisyphus”, live performance, public
space intervention
2008/06 “The Liar, the Witch and the Wardrobe”, group show,
curated by Vanessa Bartlett, at the Bridewell Gallery, Liverpool, exhibiting “Devotional
Choreography”, cine film, on 2 screens, 10 minutes looped.
2008/06 “Big Hope”, international congress hosted by Hope
University, Liverpool, exhibiting “Devotional Choreography / Khoreia”,
5 channel video installation
2007/09 “Journey with Virgil”, public
space installation in Mysore, State Karnataka, India, solo show
2007/09 “Questions about the fall of Daedalus”, poster action
in Mysore, State Karnataka, India 2007/05 “Devotional Choreograpny
/ Khoreia”, 5 screen cine film installation, Anglican Cathedral
Liverpool, solo show
2007/03 “Babel”, public installation of a Bruegel like clustered
arrangement of staircase sculptures, with light, Mysore, State Karnataka,
India
2006/11 “Bracket This 3”, group show, exhibiting: “Devotional
Choreography I”, a 3 channel digital film installation; presented
by ‘Mercy’, Liverpool Independents Biennial. (http://showmercy.co.uk/bracketthis)
2006/11 “Journey with Restraints”, performance and film,
locations: public space, Liverpool Independents Biennial, film exhibited
at the ‘Grizedale Open Salon’, A-Foundation, Greenland Street,
Liverpool.
2006/10 “Journey with Restraints”, 2 public performances
of journeys with wings made of lead attached to my back, during the Liverpool
Biennial.
Events (recent):
2007 Collaboration with “Lost Voices’ (3 high calibre and
talented, classical and improvisation musicians: Steve Boyland, Jonathan
Raisin and Ray Dickaty) with first events in May and November, in the
Anglican Cathedral, St Bride’s Church and the View Two Gallery,
all venues in Liverpool.
2006 “drawing practice”, in collaboration with Fracture,
with talented cellist Adam and life projections of waveform directed
by myself.
New Projects in development and production:
“Dungbeetle and Sisyphus (meet Red Riding Hood in the City)”,
performance and film, projected production period: July-November, with
first performance at the end of July/ early August if funding becomes
available so soon.
“
Galleries for Birds” (developing new audiences…), installation,
interactive participation, cross species collaboration, film and sound,
projected development period and production: July – December, research
and first building stages in July/August, first digital equipment additions
subject to funding
“
Rapunzel and her braided hair”, Sculptures/ritual props, live performance,
film and lullaby, public spaces interventions and gallery exhibition.
Publications:
2008 Routledge: ‘City and Gender’, front cover (“Journey
with Restraints”)
2007/01 Liverpool Independents Biennial Catalogue (last page)
2007 Frieze, photography for Marcus Coates
2006 ‘Bracket This 3’, Exhibition Catalogue
Travel and associated projects:
2008/01 Cross-European Train Journey, from Liverpool to Istanbul, to
cross the bridge linking Europe and Asia, the predominately Christian
continent with the predominantly Islamic one. In search of materials
and inspiration.
2007/07-09 India, making of “Journey with Virgil” and learning
of Traditional Indian Painting skills from a local painter.
2007/01-03 India, initially to practice Ashtanga Yoga with its master
teacher, then inspired by the culure and materials around myself I started
to make art work: “Babel”, installation in public space,
cardboard sculpture and light
2006/11 Cambodia, attended Angkor Wat Photography festival
2004/05 Morocco, to employ local workmen to help me manufacture a maquette
for an installation
2003/04 Morocco, initially to react against a growing public stereotyping
of muslim culture
(Birgit R Deubner)
bdeubner@gmx.net
http://www.axisweb.org/birgitdeubner
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