ALEXANDRA DUPREZ

The symbols she uses, the snake, the eye, or the hand, have existed since the beginnings of human cultures. Another theme, the connection between humans and animals, can also be traced back over millennia. She repeatedly encountered these motifs when she travelled the world as a young woman, and when she draws, she finds them within herself. From these symbols, she has developed a vocabulary of her own, and they appear in her work frequently, often in various iterations and repetitions. The peculiarly individual only exists in symbolic form. When she draws a human face, it serves as a placeholder for humans generally, when it is a single animal—in addition to the snake there are the horse and the dog—it stands for animals as such.

The symbols, apparently emerging from the subconscious, are confronted with constructive elements. They are straight lines drawn with the aid of a ruler, and rectangular colour fields layered to form buildings. Even if it is a way of proceeding that is abstracted from the subconscious, and reflected upon, the work does not become completely abstract. A figurative element as a centre and point of departure remains, and lends the drawings a meaning that transcends time by connecting them to prehistoric cultures.

Press release courtesy Galerie Albrecht