Cornelia Baltes. Drunk Octopus Wants to Fight

About

Cornelia Baltes’ exhibition title ‘Drunk Octopus wants to fight’ is borrowed from a recurring image that has circulated online for some time. The images show a common two-pronged coat hook, for legs, with two screws, for eyes. The popular captioning changed the collective perception of the lowly coat hook forevermore.

Cornelia’s paintings are like shadows; they allude to a once spontaneous gesture in a sketchbook, which she has reconsidered and reduced, and invested onto her canvasses or coloured MDFs. Her simplified figurative signifiers become either clues or red herrings and her accompanying titles are equally elusive/allusive. Cornelia's works thrive in their own immediacy whilst achieving ambiguity.