Because I am interested in philosophy, it should come as no surprise that I am very taken with the work of the contemporary painter Corinne Wasmuht. She is interested in how people's relationship to technology affects our reality - one in which we are constantly checking in and out of cyberspace.
Wasmuht was born in Germany in 1964 and is currently based in Berlin. She studied at the Kunstakademie Dusseldorf (the Arts Academy of Dusseldorf) from 1983-1992.
Her body of work consists of abstracted yet almost-recognizable landscapes and urban panoramas. She often derives inspiration from public spaces, which is reflected in the energetically-charged dynamism that characterizes her large-scale works. She purposefully uses scale in order to help engender an all-encompassing experience for the viewer in which her work challenges the viewer to consider their reality and relationship with space.
Wasmuht sources imagery from the internet then rearranges it in layers with paint on wood panel. She utilizes a mise en abyme technique to reflect the metamodern notion of reality surrounding fractals. The mise en abyme technique involves placing copies of an image within itself in a way that suggests an infinitely-recurring sequence.
“Her current work is centered on creating an atmosphere that underlines that feeling of ‘information overload’ resulting from today’s profusion of mass technology and media. Wasmuht’s paintings of overlapping images confuse orientation and clarity, and the sheer scale of them allows the audience to become completely enveloped by the realm that she has created. The non-hierarchical composition becomes fragmentary, as if one is constantly receiving bits of information and collaging them together in a jumbled incoherent mix.”
- Pretzel Gallery, NYC
