Resistance Hero - Josefina Frederick
This first exhibition at Projektraum is curated by Huisi He
Josefina Frederick - Solo Exhibition
OPENING Thursday, October 15th from 7-9pm.
EXHIBITION October 15, 2015 – October 29, 2015.
One day digging out dirt the pickax
strikes something hard: not a rock or a diamond
but a tibia a femur a number of ribs
a mandible that once spoke
and now speaks again
All bones speak haunt accuse
build towers against oblivion
white trenches shining at night
The bone is a hero of the resistance
Oscar Hahn, Bone. Translation by James Hoggard
Figures of bones become pictorial elements and storytellers; a search of archaeological sense is the theme behind Resistance Hero, a first solo exhibition by the Chilean artist Josefina Frederick at Projektraum in New York. The artist transforms the body into landscape, images from anatomy books appear as surreal natural landscapes in her drawings.
Her drawings are based on sculptural exercises according to Josefina's account. "Rescued materials from sculpted forms, in the manner of collages through photocopying or hand drawn lines, are transformed until only a slight reminiscence of the original remains giving way to a new entity."
The way of making these drawings reminds Josefina of the fieldwork of an anthropologist. To retrieve a bit of history, he must excavate, clean, discover and interpret the findings through a mix of real and fantastic assumptions. "That's what I look to rescue with my drawings. Ultimately, I am recomposing and joining loose bits of history."
Observing anatomy illustrations the artist was particularly interested in the figure of the bone and their high durability over time and reaction to decomposition. "The resistance," she says, "I find it attractive to see their struggle to survive inside the dirt, as if they are there to continue to live and tell us about something new."
She adds, "These bones make the skeleton of my drawings, the base structures for the organic forms which grow to a state of suspension between reality and fiction. "
Josefina Frederick (Santiago de Chile, born 1983) holds a BFA degree in art with a major in sculpture from the Finis Terrae University. In 2012, she won the scholarship Art Studies Center "Cromos" (Buenos Aires, Argentina), where she conducted sculpture seminars and contemporary drawing. Josefina has participated in several exhibitions in Chile and abroad, as in art fairs like Affordable Art Fair, New York; Faxxi, Santiago, Chile and Gallery Nights Palermo, Buenos Aires. She currently lives in New York City, where she was part of the residency at the School of Visual Arts University and the institution BHQF (Bruce High Quality Foundation) in 2015. This year she was commissioned to paint a mural at the Local Project Gallery (Long Island City, New York)
Projektraum is a new initiative by Kunstraum that features solo and group exhibitions by member artists throughout the year. It is based on the active contribution of the members and their need for experimental space to display their work. This first exhibition at Projektraum is curated by Huisi He.