The work of the Belgian visual artist Ana Torfs consists of various installations with slide projections, photo series, a web project, a feature film and several publications. Torfs has dealt, among others, with questions such as perception, representation and the construction of images and identity. She has also focused on the tension between text and image, between reading and visualising and – in a larger sense – between the fabricated and the real. Above all her work creates a strong visual experience.

With five large-format slide projections, several photo series, and a song project for the Internet, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein- Westfalen K21 presents the first museum-based overview of the work of Ana Torfs. Representation and visualisation, reality and fiction form the cornerstones of Ana Torfs’ installations which consist of projected images (usually black and white slides) and texts. In precisely choreographed audiovisual constellations Torfs brings to life literary, historical and political material.

In these projects the artist works with actors who embody their roles in a demonstratively matter-of-fact and functional way. Documents on Joan d’Arc, a famous one act play by the symbolist poet Maurice Maeterlinck but also testimonies from Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht’s murder trial serve as starting points for room-filling installations such as “Du mentir-faux” (About Lying Falsehood), 2000, “The Intruder”, 2004, or “Anatomy”, 2006. Ana Torfs has been practising and developing her method of subtly dissecting and superimposing places, people, voices and atmospheres for over fifteen years. In doing so, she draws from the repertoire of dramatic, photographic and cinematic techniques.

Apart from a selection of earlier works, the recently completed slide installation “Displacement” (2009) will be shown for the first time at K21.

In the below video by Ralph Goertz from the Institut für Kunstdokumentation und Szenografie, Torfs introduces the work on her exhibition at K21.

The Exhibition called Album/Tracks A at the K21, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf will run until the 18Th of July, 2010.

Photos Ana Torfs | K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen | Video by Ralph Goertz, Institut für Kunstdokumentation und Szenografie

Cindy Sherman is an American photographer and film maker who is known for her conceptual self portraits. Her works can rely on shock, surprise but also beauty. Depending on what era her works have focused on. As a female artist, Sherman addressed the issue of physical gender expectations and identity formation.

Sherman’s earlier work has toyed with and skewered feminine mystique.  In her seminal Untitled Film Stills and other conceptual female portraits, she cast herself in most pictures, adopting various roles in the photographs that both exploit and comment on the male gaze, as well as create a running narrative about female identity.

Her latest works seem to be representative of Sherman looking forward in time. Sherman seems to be focusing on a period of transition and uncertainty in the lives of Western womanhood.  The time of sexual attraction and procreation is seemingly over for these women. These society women are approaching a time when their previously engaged and active lives begin to slow down.  The slight satirical appearances of the women hint at a vulnerability and a despair in the not too distant future, despite the many attempts at proud stances by these women.  Rather than these pictures being a reflection of how men view women, these are strictly Sherman’s eyes we are seeing through this time.

The second remarkable fact about this latest series is that they are basically larger then life. Not only the physical photo dimensions  are over-sized but also the make up Sherman uses to assume each specific identity and role for the photographs has been purposefully over done, the clothing worn in each photo helps tell a story, and the poses range from icy cold to slightly demented. There’s women in ball gowns alone in their own living rooms.  Women who are trying very hard to look good for the camera.

Photos: Cindy Sherman | Conceptual portaits