From the series of Law Paintings.
„Before studying art in New York and Munich, Caro Jost studied law. The law with its requirements on action that shape the social, civic and political life continue to preoccupy the artist to this day. In 2016, she made over 500 drawings on original law sheets in her performative installation “Panama Paperworks,” which also served as wallpaper within the temporary office setting. The drawings resemble annotations that reflect the artist’s reading and interpretation through highlighting and deletions. In some places the sheets are stamped with her name or own terms. For a series of paintings, Jost printed a selection on canvas using screenprint, partly overpainted them, pasted them over and then poured over them with epoxy. Thus, in one of the works, in addition to individual fragments, only the terms “contest,” “prize promises,” and “duty to notify in the event of rejection” remain from the legal text. Stamped in capital letters on the work is “NO VIP ROOM IN REAL LIFE”. It is contradictions that come together here: the promising prize of a competition – an all-inclusive trip, perhaps – and the set of rules that brings disillusionment at the end. In another work, Jost uses a law sheet on the subject of change of family names. Much of it is crossed out, and the printed canvas is compressed on its carrier so that other things disappear into the folds of the canvas. On a piece of tape extending centrally across the canvas, we find Jost’s own handwriting, “Who travels to Las Vegas does not ask for the last name”. The clue this time leads to Jost’s own past and a spontaneous marriage in Las Vegas many years ago. Stamped on the bottom right of the work in capital letters is “CARO JOST.” The relationship has long since ended, but the name has remained as a trace of its own, inscribed in the artist’s work and identity.

Caro Jost often traces the past of others in her work. The archives of well-known artists, pictures of their studios or even their material bills become objects in Jost’s works. She appropriates things that seem ephemeral, for the most part perhaps they are, giving the incidental a physicality without being nostalgic or worshipful. Rather, it is her way of listening and looking closely that characterizes her engagement with the objects. This creates conversations that contain Jost’s reflection, but also testify to the material’s resistance.“

Excerpt from a text by Dr. Monika Bayer-Wermuth, Brandhorst Museum, Munich, 2022