MAIN BODY by Sally Von Rosen

Sally von Rosen’s exhibition is a biographical excerpt of a new species of creatures, she
herself brought to live. In the current status quo of their existence and for the first time they
appear as a herd, arranged as a sculptural still life of motionless figures bundled in a scenery
rising from a yet unexplored sphere. These physiognomically familiar and abstract headless
bodies balance on top of each other in a frozen performance staged on a black square.

Closely observing the individual creatures reveal their connectedness with each other: they are
intertwined through a shared skeleton. They expose new sorts of bones that autopoietically
grow into each other and finally merge into one grant formation: a MAIN BODY.

A guard-like and rather symbolic frame in the form of five drawings executed by an automatic
drawing machine imitating the visual vocabulary of Hieronymus Bosch surround the
installation. They depict elusive otherworldly monsters and figures stemming from dreamlike
settings, which suggests a relationship to the sinister and strange encounter of creatures to be
found in the middle of the space.

Both, von Rosen’s sculptural and Bosch’s pictorial landscapes possess a mesmerizing blend
of awe and dread and conjure creatures that teeter on the precipice of reality and nightmare,
unveiling the innermost corners of the human psyche.
The grotesque beings in their works un-categorize the known as they are a mutation of the
natural and the fantastical. Their bodies evoke an unsettling beauty that lures us into a realm
both enchanting and unsettling weaving a web between creatures that challenge our
perception of the real and the unreal. They seem to be symbols of the myriad facets of the
human condition as they mirror our desires, fears, and obsessions, a vivid reflection of the
chaos and wonderment that reside within us all.

Bosch’s re-drawn monsters, the deranged pyramid shape in which the creatures are showing,
the black square: this remix of elements in form of a ritualistic looking like gathering seems to
have an unknown purpose, a secret to be uncovered.

As in the original Bosch paintings, the organically sculptured creatures in MAIN BODY appear
in large numbers. Following the principle of exaggeration through repetition, their mysterious
purpose of existence in the multitude asks for being revealed as they might serve as psychic
models (Robert Smithson) pointing towards a higher meaning.

They are headless yet vital and forceful organisms and can be seen as a symbiosis or an
assemblage of an “animated thing” and a “real being”. Each of the same kind, but different in
detail in aura and sex. All creatures are operating within an own unknown rationality, through a
mystic intelligence on a cryptic mission. They contradict any idea of human belief that
intelligence and therefore power and ability of action is fundamentally linked to the organ of
the brain. The rigid and archetypical geometry of a black square, from where the creatures
seem to arise from, dissolves in a looser formation of the creatures although still recalling the
anatomy of the square shaped ground.

There might a possible attempt by the creatures to escape from something to turn towards
something new. They seem to move dynamically towards something “higher”. Are they on a
mission, whose inherent meaning seems obvious and logical to them, but unclear to us?
Rather than an improvised movement their activity seems goal oriented. But answers
concerning the actions of this crowd of creatures might not be find in human rational attempts.

The enigmatic and surreal formation in MAIN BODY appears as something familiar and alien at
the same time, as something simultaneously ancient and futuristic. Neither the reading as a
purely esthetical composition nor as a psychological evaluation can point towards an
understanding of such a new reality. All ideas hinting to possibly solve the mystery behind the
scenes remain vague and as all elements elude a clear implication caused by their paradox and
surreal nature everything stays in the status of associative stimulation connected to a level of
unconsciousness within a spiral of just further questioning.

Sally von Rosen’s merge of form and narrative can be read as a picturesque outtake from a
serial story of a specific fictional reality to be continued rather than “just” a pure sculpture. It’s
the cinematic and atmospheric quality of MAIN BODY that triggers complex emotions and
functions as a comment on the absurdity of human existence and our contradictory
relationship with our surrounding world and with each other. In her chosen scene she
confronts us with a collective activity motivated by something unknown.

Juliet Kothe

Trauma Bar and Kino’s program focuses on the fusion of visual arts, music, and performance. It opposes classical
distinctions between performance venues, museums, institutions, and clubs. The invited artists craft unique and
immersive installations. Following this conceptional approach the exhibition by Sally von Rosen creates
an ethereal atmosphere and complex artistic landscape that provides a multi-sensory experience.

The exhibition is curated by Juliet Kothe and Madalina Stanescu with reproductions of five drawings by Hieronymus
Bosch with the kind permission of Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin. The expedition is part of Berlin Art Week’s special
program ”BAW Featured”.