Mise-en-scène with pommel horse, 3D printed cherries, green branches and accompanying video-installation
Glossary
Pommel horse: a classic gymnastic apparatus for men. The act of riding on one can be interpreted as an ironic female appropriation. The rider's ballet leotard moves her activity into the gymnastic realm. Yet the way of her riding has a sexual connotation. The rider herself though seems emotionally and physically unaffected, which runs counter to the recipients’ impression of a sexual component.
Cherries: "to pop a girl's cherry" is slang for the breaking of the hymen
Green branches: are an old fertility symbol
'(...) In a small room, oversized white plastic cherries hang from a stucco ceiling that we can still surmise and films flicker on screens. A gymnastics pommel horse stands in the centre. The handles are decorated with ribbons and twigs. Repeatedly, the videos show the contrast between self-dramatization and anonymity. People present themselves dancing—but their faces are hidden behind smileys, their breasts covered in cherries.
Regelmäßig taucht die Fuchsmaske auf. Hergestellt werden soll der Bezug zur japanischen Mythologie, zur Kitsune-Figur. Diese ist mit der Gabe ausgestattet, menschliche Gestalt anzunehmen. In den Sagen tritt eine Kitsune oftmals als ausgesprochen schöne junge Frau auf und heiratet einen Mann, meist aus wirklicher und inniger Liebe. Doch sobald dieser bemerkt, dass er mit einer Füchsin verheiratet ist, verschwindet diese auf Nimmerwiedersehen und lässt ihn mit den gemeinsamen Kindern allein zurück.
A fox mask makes regular appearances. It is meant to make reference to Japanese mythology, specifically to the kitsune figure. Kitsune are blessed with the gift of adopting a human form. In the legends, a Kitsune often appears as an extremely beautiful young woman and marries a man, usually out of genuine and heartfelt love. But as soon as the man realises that he is married to a vixen, she vanishes into thin air, leaving him alone with their children.
Gegensätze vermitteln auch die Performances von Poetter (Anna Poetter alias Anna Steward, Anm. d. Red.), die regelmäßig und unangekündigt im Kunstpalais stattfinden. Die Künstlerin ist schweigend im Raum unterwegs, drapiert Zweige am Seitpferd, das ja ein klassisches Männerturngerät ist.
Dann nimmt sie eine Reitgerte. Streichelt die Bänder und drischt immer heftiger auf die Zweige ein, deren Blätter sich auf dem Fußboden verteilen. Dann verschwindet Poetter wieder. Auf dem Boden bleiben die abgeschlagenen Blätter zurück, die Videos flimmern weiter."
Contrasts are also expressed in the performances by Poetter (Anna Poetter alias Anna Steward, Ed.), which are held regularly and without prior notice at the Kunstpalais. The artist moves silently around the room, draping twigs on the pommel horse, which in fact is a traditional apparatus for men’s gymnastics.
Then she picks up a riding crop. She strokes the ribbons and thrashes more and more violently at the branches, whose leaves get scattered on the floor. Finally, Poetter disappears again. The severed leaves are left on the floor; the videos continue to flicker.'
smö, Erlanger Nachrichten, 05 October 2018