Katrin Brause: Speranza

The Leipzig based artist and painter Katrin Brause has long been interested in seemingly incidental scenery, discarded and dilapidated objects and neglected corners. In recent years, she has created still lifes from mattress towers, bulky waste and other obsolete objects. However, formed into an allegory to the human being, these works tell a lot about the persons behind the depicted objects and sceneries, despite their absence, without being completely decipherable.

A similar fascination is exerted by the lovingly composed but fragmentary altars in the streets of the city of Catania. These altars are subject to constant change: some are reassembled and redecorated again and again, others fade and seem forgotten. In contrast to the utilitarian objects in Katrin Brause's earlier works, the altars' personal objects provide an in-depth look into the lives of their creators. The presence of saints is unmistakable - in some cases icons are piled on top of each other in stacks. The apparition of Mary in the Portuguese village of Fátima, equipped with a crown of thorns and a flaming heart in front of her chest, is encountered several times in the exhibition. It is considered a symbol of hope - speranza in Italian - which seems to be the real motif behind the works. Hope and longing are hidden in the loving arrangements that reflect the wishes and fears of the faithful. They are in the setting of these sceneries - Sicily. A place of longing for the painter. Katrin Brause connects very personal experiences and encounters with this place, which in turn also find their way into her artworks. It is so in many respects very intimate insights that are captured here in oil on canvas.

Viewing the devoted veneration of the Madonnas, to whom personal strokes of fate are entrusted, the decay of the altars seem almost paradoxical. Peeling photographs, bent, torn images of the Virgin Mary are partly faded down to the white paper. Another work of Brause shows only the shadow of a bouquet of flowers. Why the once so carefully curated arrangements are left to themselves, whether by fulfilled or already extinguished, abandoned hopes, remains open. Even though Brause uses the formal language and iconography of Catholicism here, religion as an institution is not her primary focus. Much more interesting for the artist is the consideration of human longings and needs, which could also manifest themselves in a private, meticulous decoration of a sideboard with framed family photos, candles and the album cover of the favorite band. In the streets of Catania, the wishes and requests, the memory and the concern manifest themselves publicly and for all to see.

Text by Mathilde Blum