BORN, Berlin:
NORA MONA BACH + LUCY TEASDALE
The Way through the Woods
28 April – 12 June 2021
opening day: Wednesday, 28 April, 11:00 – 18:00

The Way through the Woods

Charcoal is not the easiest material to work  with. In no time, it changes Nora Mona Bach’s studio into a dusty place.  The floor underneath the works is covered with the powder that did not  stick to the paper. It is clearly not for convenience that the artist  uses loose charcoal (neither as a stick, nor mixed). She does so because  of the attraction and the possibilities that charcoal on paper gives  her. In its loose form, the black can easily be moved across the paper,  retouched where needed. She can alternate between airy and dense areas,  take away any darkness that she first created. She might even enjoy the  material challenges she has to work through to get to the image. As  “getting there” seems part of what her work is about. Something has to  be conquered in these works, and in the final result, we are a witness  to that process. Only when everything is in place does the artist spray  fixer over the drawings to make them stick to the paper.
 

As a sculptor, Lucy Teasdale finds a challenge in making heavy things  look light. Part of her work is cast in bronze, part in a brightly  colored composite material called Acrystal, and other pieces are made in  porcelain. Often we see figures only roughly shaped, either humans or  animals. They are obviously living figures, but not defined in detail,  nor with individual traits. It is rather their appearance, posture, or a  certain movement that we see, such as a man waving a flag, or a bird  diving. In some sculptures, we see the rods that keep the whole thing  upright or that connect different parts and prevent them from  collapsing. Occasionally, the artist likes to keep such elements  visible; not everything has to be clean and polished. It all becomes  part of the shape, of the “construction sites” of the imagination that  her works present to us. In the figures, we still see the fingers that  molded them; the sculptor’s hand remains, just as there is an organic  touch to them, as if nature also contributed to their shape by growing  them.
 

It would be far-fetched to suggest that the works of the two artists in  this exhibition are related. It is rather that their respective works do  not bite or interfere with each other; their works build a clear  contrast. This can happen because each artist is rooted in her own  practice. Yet behind the visuals, there is something in the process that  these artists do share: an interest in accidental form and a natural  development of composition. In both their works, balance is important.  On one side, there is the artist’s hand aiming to control and shape the  image, and on the other side, there are unintended forms that come in  during the process. The focus for each artist is not just to define the  image, but also to let loose and allow for things to happen. Both  artists mix a planned itinerary with an improvisational attitude.
 

In some of Nora Mona Bach’s work, it is hard to deny the presence of a  landscape. There is a heaven or horizon, there are clouds or some  bushes, a tree or the surface of water. But then, in other works, or in  areas of a work, we cannot be sure what is actually depicted. We see  black, grey, dense, light, we see collision of forms and contrast  between heavily worked and calmer areas. Atmosphere would be the right  word to connect the landscapes with these more abstract parts, and maybe  that is even their main point. The artist presents us with a setting  that could be the weather, but also a mental state or a mood, or just an  expression of forms. It could be a view outside, but it could also be  the trace of a memory that is now fixed on paper, a reflection of  introspection. When she starts out, the artist has a sense of where she  will go, in terms of a light or maybe a melancholic mood. But the actual  image that will come out is still unknown. That will be only uncovered  in the process of making it. Time is not something you can catch or see,  but Bach seems to be driven by the wish to do so: to touch time in her  work. One speaks about the dust of time, and that is what is collected  in her work, even though it is in an active way, as she is the one  dusting. She moves the black powder over the surface, she supports  shapes growing and thickening, and she prevents others from appearing at  all. Underneath is a curiosity about capturing life in flux, because  our experiences can easily disappear from sight.
 

“The Way through the Woods” is a poem written in 1910 by Rudyard  Kipling. For Lucy Teasdale, it provides a good metaphor for what an  artist does. The poem is about a trail through the woods that has been  covered over time with plants and trees. It used to be there, but only  the people who know will be able to find it again. This image of a form  that is there and also not there is attractive to the sculptor. Her  works often go back to older images that have triggered something in  her, such as a photo of Queen Victoria’s daughters in mourning, draped  in black around a bust of their deceased father. From this image, the  three-dimensional Spanning the Globe (2021) evolved. In another  sculpture, The Supremes (2021), there is a different reference to the  globe. Here the title comes from a story about Pompey the Great who was  generally depicted holding the world, to symbolize his victories. As he  was associated with Julius Caesar and Marc Anthony, we find three  figures together in Teasdale’s version. Yet their form is quite  abstract; the globe could just as easily be a ball, and the figures  holding it have the shape of a boot. A lot of Teasdale’s work is rooted  in (art) history, in prints or etchings that have caught her attention.  She finds in them a reflection of our present situation, and she has an  eye for absurd aspects, just as she notes beautiful and dynamic  qualities. In order to articulate her perspective, and dust off the  specific historic context, she transforms the images freely into her  material. At times, she exaggerates in baroque ways, making us guess  about the essence within the expressive forms. Between the initial image  that inspired the artist, and the sculptures that we see, a lot of  history has faded, and new forms have developed. It has been her way  through the woods.
 

Jurriaan Benschop, March 2021   

Nora Mona Bach

1988 born in Chemnitz, Germany   

2006 – 2012 Studied in the graphics class of Prof. Thomas Rug at Burg Giebichenstein, Halle University of Art   

2011 Study trip to Damascus (Syria)   

since 2018 Doctorate (Ph.D.) at Bauhaus University Weimar     

lives and works in Halle (Saale), Germany   

Lucy Teasdale

1984  born in Birmingham, England    

2006 – 2007  Studies at the University of the Arts, Berlin    

2007-10  Study of Free Art, Art Academy Düsseldorf with Tony Cragg     

lives and works in Berlin