Janine Eggert
None
Info
My recent projects explore the relationship between the ornament and the symmetries and repetitions of industrially manufactured objects. Enlarged and mirrored, symmetrically composed and separated from the original context, these technical devices develop into objects and sculptures of almost decorative quality. I find them on research trips to industrial sites, technological architecture or technical landscapes and transform them by shifts in material, color and proportions.
In this work, I examine the tension between pure functionality on one side and the aesthetic meaning and quality of forms. I make handcrafted, self-made objects that reveal the traces of their manufacture.
The aesthetic form itself becomes the content of the work, thus formulating a counter-proposal to assigned functionalities, economic requirements and power structures that are represented in functional forms. Since these are expressions of a cultural adaptation. Natural forms and properties serve as a model and source of inspiration for technical development in order to transform them into functional forms and products. But I submit the objects to a second transformation, in which not nature is transformed into culture, but functional culture is transformed into aesthetically significant culture.
I try to counteract the contradiction that the designed goods and technical designs of this world originate from the human sphere, are conceived and manufactured by humans, but have become estrange to the human being through forms of production, the division of labor and world trade, by material transformations of the objects, when I translate machine parts into Tiffany technique or decode transmission gear elements as ornaments.
In addition, the discrepancy between technical perfection and human error is part of my actual work process, since manual or physical tools and digital workflows confront each other and influence one another. I combine design techniques on the computer such as 3D modeling, CAD drawing or CGI with manual production in wood, metal or glass processing and screen printing.
I am concerned with questioning and undermining anchored concepts, forces and hierarchies, such as the misconception that there is a gender-specific assessment of cultural techniques, that is, to consider crafting rather as a female trait, and „high brow" art techniques such as painting and sculpting rather as masculine techniques. Especially against the background of theories that see the ornamentation of (ritual) objects and the geometric (textile) pattern formation as the actual precursors and foundations of all visual and fine art.
In this work, I examine the tension between pure functionality on one side and the aesthetic meaning and quality of forms. I make handcrafted, self-made objects that reveal the traces of their manufacture.
The aesthetic form itself becomes the content of the work, thus formulating a counter-proposal to assigned functionalities, economic requirements and power structures that are represented in functional forms. Since these are expressions of a cultural adaptation. Natural forms and properties serve as a model and source of inspiration for technical development in order to transform them into functional forms and products. But I submit the objects to a second transformation, in which not nature is transformed into culture, but functional culture is transformed into aesthetically significant culture.
I try to counteract the contradiction that the designed goods and technical designs of this world originate from the human sphere, are conceived and manufactured by humans, but have become estrange to the human being through forms of production, the division of labor and world trade, by material transformations of the objects, when I translate machine parts into Tiffany technique or decode transmission gear elements as ornaments.
In addition, the discrepancy between technical perfection and human error is part of my actual work process, since manual or physical tools and digital workflows confront each other and influence one another. I combine design techniques on the computer such as 3D modeling, CAD drawing or CGI with manual production in wood, metal or glass processing and screen printing.
I am concerned with questioning and undermining anchored concepts, forces and hierarchies, such as the misconception that there is a gender-specific assessment of cultural techniques, that is, to consider crafting rather as a female trait, and „high brow" art techniques such as painting and sculpting rather as masculine techniques. Especially against the background of theories that see the ornamentation of (ritual) objects and the geometric (textile) pattern formation as the actual precursors and foundations of all visual and fine art.