Jule Tabea Martin. too close for comfort.

About

Jule Tabea Martin studied fine arts at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart and at the University of the Arts in Berlin with Monica Bonvincini. She also has a master's degree in art history from the Sorbonne University in Paris and the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz.

The KWADRAT gallery is extremely pleased to be able to present its current work in a solo exhibition for the first time.

Long, artificial fingernails cover the shapes of rings and eggs. Decorated with beads and nail art stickers or colored with lacquer and placed on a bronze base, the eggs appear as precious objects that evoke memories of the elaborately designed Fabergé eggs from the 19th century. The artificial fingernails enclose the fragile shell of the eggs like a protective shield. At the same time, the surface made of pointed nails prevents access to the objects. The closer the viewer gets to the eggs and rings, the more the ambivalence of these aesthetic objects becomes apparent. There is a risk of injury from the pointed fingernails. Their protective and defensive function is as fragile as the material of the eggshell and long nails. There is always a danger that they will break.

The ubiquitous biohazard symbol, which we usually encounter on small plastic bags, becomes an element of medieval sacred architecture in the drawings. Only on closer inspection does it become apparent that the contemporary sign has been subtly integrated into the rosette of the Gothic stained glass window. The biohazard symbol has become part of everyday life, just like the symbolic representations of medieval church windows. It points to a pandemic that has destabilized the world and the potential dangers and emergencies that will arise in a globalized, climate-crisis world in the future. Knowledge of the fragility of social and political systems and concern about their collapse leave a lasting impression of threat and insecurity.

Jule Tabea Martin combines different visual and content elements in her works. They do not prove to be merely aesthetic objects, but increasingly reveal an underlying ambivalent dystopian and destructive symbolism. Neither divine assistance nor defensive measures seem to be solutions to the feeling of being threatened. Rather, the artist's aesthetic pictorial vocabulary is a warning to leave one's own comfort zone and face these insecurities.

Bettina Löwen (art historian)