A multimedia approach, the employment of various materials and comic-strip art are common to three young authoresses who exhibited their works in two galleries at AKC Metelkova mesto. The joint exhibition venue was dedicated to visual images presented on various backgrounds (wood, cardboard, plastic, fabric, gum, etc.).
The entrance to the gallery venue led under the installation Stories under the Skirt by the Korean-French authoress Juhyun Choi. ‘’I made a tunnel of wide-open female legs from nylons and balloons, filled with water and air. Nylons evoke a particular part of female body and symbolise fetishised lust. I drew genitals and toes on them. A smooth round balloon is a very sensual form. Its material is reminiscent of condoms or skin while the knot is like the nipple. From the exterior, we see a tunnel of weird, semi-human forms that look similar to buttocks or breasts. The balloons are brought together in some sort of deformed legs; there are plenty of them and they are interwoven. The spectator can enjoy this witty and playful view of ‘falsified’ femininity from the exterior. Inside the tunnel, however, the floor is embedded with the testimonies of women from various periods who had had abortions. The tunnel gets evermore narrow, and towards its end the spectator has to walk on all fours. This is important because the installation is a narrative of humiliation and through crawling one gets a closer view of the testimonials on the floor.’’
Girl’s Room by Belgian artist Aurélie Levaux, was composed of drawings, illustrations, pictures and comics. ‘’It’s a story about a little girl who won’t grow up and thus lives in a sweet pink world, a place of dreams and fantasy which simultaneously represents her view of love and human relationships.’’
The exhibition was opened with a theatrical performance entitled My Mother’s Hand performed by Juhyun & Sunyoung Choi, accompanied by the violinist Jelena Ždrale. In the spirit of traditional Chinese shadow theatre they recreated the dream world of shadows of both objects and the dancer transmogrified through the glass of an overhead projector. At a certain moment instead of a puppet, a real human hand emerges which is not proportional to the dancer’s shadow. ‘’The performance was inspired by a dream I had about finding my mother’s hand on the floor. The story deals with the entire range of emotions: from surprise, sadness, compassion and parental love, to fear and guilt.’’
Igor Prassel
