Galerie Dantendorfer
MARIANNE LANG
we are nature
25 May – 29 June 2022
Exhibition: we are nature
Artist: Marianne Lang
Period: 25 May – 29 June 2022
Marianne Lang’s central medium of expression is drawing—in the broadest sense. She experiments with different techniques, materials, and perspectives. From “classical” pencil drawing, to engraved drawing on glass, to drawing with a soldering iron, she explores a wide range of approaches. What is distinctive about Lang’s drawings is the alignment of technique with motif—thus, one finds burn drawings and moths, as well as silverpoint on black canvas and plants that reveal their full splendor only at night. The central theme, once again, is nature. However, this is not about pure observation or depiction of natural phenomena, but rather about the space between nature and humans: how we live in nature, how we treat it, and how we coexist.
“The house in the countryside”—many people associate these four words with a deep longing for a place of peace and relaxation, an oasis untouched and secluded, where one can unwind and escape everyday life. Marianne Lang turns this idea into a body of work in which the field of tension between humans and nature is explored. The series shows buildings and interior spaces that are not classically defined by walls and windows or inhabited by furniture and décor, but whose outlines are formed through plant growth. The motifs are real, existing houses and interiors, some of which are adapted and expanded by the artist.
Underlying this series—and Lang’s art in general—is the concept of space. Using Haus im Grünen as an example, Lang presents both interior and exterior spaces that only come to life through objects and people. This raises the question of what role nature plays within these spaces. Is it a fixed component of our living environments? And if so, under what conditions? Many people long to be in nature, to experience it and to protect it. But which spaces can truly still be called “natural”? Perhaps we are, in fact, living in a “nature” created by humans.
A similar approach of permeation and fusion—of outside and inside, private and public, as well as nature and humanity—can be found in the series Double Sights. Here, Lang overlays two motifs, recalling the photographic technique of double exposure. Crucially, the motifs consist of a landscape and an interior space. At first glance, the works invite daydreaming—a table by the lake or a sofa in the park. Yet in our fast-paced world, in which the boundaries between online and offline, private and professional life are thinner than ever, a closer look may also evoke a desire for a clearer separation of these living spaces.
We are nature—the exhibition once again aims to sharpen visitors’ awareness of their relationship to nature and to their living environments. And perhaps, afterward, one or another may ask themselves: Are we nature?
Text: Selin Stütz
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