plants & portraits
plants & portraits – site specific installation by Linda Nadji
April 8 – 30, 2022
For the exhibition in the ODALISQUE showroom, I am developing an installation on site, in which various groups of works are brought together: Woodcuts from the "PLANTS & PORTRAITS" series, which I realized in 2020/2021. Clay objects created in 2017 during and after the performative laboratory "materials II". Crystalline sculptures made of plasterboard (2015/2022), as well as filigree wooden objects made from leftover pieces of my former studio floor (year 2022).
I like to work with random products and bring them into new relationships. The printing blocks of the woodcuts are a selection of wood cuttings that fell off during the construction of one of my sculptures. These residual forms then become the tools to develop new images again. The attempt to stage a new image with different, stand-alone works in the exhibition space and thus to bring the works into relation to each other offers the possibility of new perspectives and the inclusion of the spaces in between. I am interested in working with the given space. Finding the balance between fullness and emptiness, seeking balance or going to extremes.
The observation, questioning and transformation of the given and a constantly new handling of the material are essential approaches of my artistic practice. It allows a change of perspective and invites you to detach yourself from your usual perspectives and engage in nuances. Everything is related to each other and depends on each other. This is what inspires my work.
Vier Holzschnitte aus der Serie plants & portraits
Acryl, Linoleum und Lack auf Papier, je 140 x 100 cm 2020
Ton Objekte
Reliquien der Performance „materials II", Terrakotta, 2017/ 2022
Reliquie 1
Reliquie 2
Reliquie 3
Reliquie 4
Reliquie 5
Vier Korpora
Terracotta, 2018
Korpus 1
Korpus 2
Korpus 3
Korpus 4
KRISTALIN
Podestskulpturen, Gipskarton, Acryl, Kunsthartz, 2016 / 2022
Kristalin 1 74 x 20 x 40 cm
Kristalin 2 67 x 57 x 37 cm
Kristalin 3 92 x 58 x 50 cm
Fünf Objekte
aus der Serie MovingGround
(Holzsplitter aus den ehemaligen Atelier Dielen)
Fichtenholz, Lack, 2022
55 x 90 cm
90 x 130 cm
86 x 80 cm
120 x 110 cm
95 x 83 cm
Linda Nadji (*1972, Tehran) lives and works in Cologne. Her artistic practice moves at the interfaces between sculpture, installation and performance. She studied sculpture with Prof. Hubert Kiecol at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, where she graduated as a master student. Before that, she completed acting training in Cologne and studied design at the Aachen University of Applied Sciences.
She exhibited internationally, among others, in Armenia, Georgia, Sweden, Norway, Italy and Turkey as well as in German institutions, e.g. Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof, Kunstverein Sundern; Kunstverein Ludwigsburg; Maschinenhaus Essen; Simultanhalle, Cologne; ZEROFOLD, Cologne. Her works are represented in private and public collections.
Since 2015, performance has been an important part of her work; among other things, she developed space-specific performances in the Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld and the Osthaus Museum, Hagen. Linda Nadji is also active as a curator. 2021 in the Collective "BÜRO for curatorial care and collective experiment" at Studios Quartier am Hafen, Cologne. From 2012 to 2020 she was part of the curator collective of the project space BRUCH&DALLAS in Cologne.
