Barbara LüddeKissing Without Penetration

The exhibition 'Kissing Without Penetration' showcases the meaning of closeness and distance in times of globalized, atomized society and, highly digitized world. Close-ups on people without faces, the hands speak and depict people from our time, somehow connected but still alone. Throughout thin and precise lines, kinky details are popping up. The links that could bring us together, connection tools from wifi symbols to old-fashioned Tamagotchis, connection tools that could allow us to dream, bringing us in a surreal, maybe fake, and artificial environment. The wallpaper as well as the sound piece (by Elinor Lüdde, “Vaporwav”), fragmented, glitched into the room are here to transfer this feeling of dis-connection / connection. As a trompe-l’oeil, between paradise and the possibility of nowhere, the exhibition asks the questions of where are we going? Which direction? What kind of truth are we constructing? With whom? The feeling of being alone and being lost in a consumer-oriented society is the main theme of Barbara Lüdde’s artistic practice. A constant search for love and belonging are the main motifs. The title of the exhibition obviously describes an ambivalence — “Kissing Without Penetration” does it sound possible? In times of isolation and perhaps loneliness we would need to find another form of kissing, is the digital one the right one ?

“A theme central to my work is the dissociation of marginalized subjects from mainstream society. In elaborate drawings, which are made with ink on paper, I capture moments in the search for identity and gender. Withal I explore the urge to belong and deviate, satisfied through habits of consumption. I primarily present figurative subjects in single, full-format drawings. In filigrain detail, I capture and depict subcultural codes readable in body language, clothing accessories, hairstyles, tattoos, and patches – which allude to the subject‘s identity. In a “bricolage” manner, an assemblage of diverse cultural references combines to create a new whole. I am focusing on the creation of the “self” amidst the capitalistic world order – situated between appropriation and alienation, between inner and outer powers which constantly push and pull on the individual.” – Barbara Lüdde