Forensic evidence of failure

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crush door Andra Ursuta, 2011

 

                               Tentoonstelling ‘Body language’, najaar-winter 2013

 

 

 

 

 

Interview

 

Vraag: Crush (2011) is a very realistic full body cast of you, nude, as a flattened stone age peat bog mummy, covered in what appears to be an enormous amount of semen. Why put yourself in this position? And how did you make such a thing?

 

Ursuta: It’s a very uncomfortable and slightly melodramatic description of an emotional state, of feelings of rejection and worthlessness. Like most of my works, it started with a very dumb, literal understanding of the word “crush.” Crush is the sum of all crushes that lead to heartbreak experienced over a lifetime, or over centuries, if you think of the female protagonist as an archetypal used and discarded woman.

 

Vraag: That seems like an incredibly negative statement — that women are essentially “cum dumpsters,” defined by their relationships to men, and literally crushed by the disappointment of their expectations.

 

Ursuta: Yes, I’ve been there. Crush is a self-portrait that fulfills all those requirements. It’s made from a female perspective that tries to mimic macho detachment and fails, implying a violent and degrading self-annihilation. The female subject’s expectations are only part of it, there are also cultural expectations that go against them. I rejected the misogynistic culture I came from [Roemenië] and at the same time, although it’s not cool to admit it, I don’t relate to the liberal sexual attitudes of the ultra-civilized society I now live in. They both lead to the sense of being interchangeable and therefore worthless. So Crush is really about a personal and somewhat neurotic failure to optimally function in the contemporary world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vraag: How does the representation of your flattened body in Crush function differently than the flattened version of your body that you created as part of Vandal Lust (2011)?

 

Ursuta: The body in Vandal Lust is more of a prop, but other than that, they are very similar. Both works allude to events that result in the destruction of their protagonist. They are cartoonish skits that lead you to imagine an optimistic beginning while confronting you with the aftermath of a disaster. These pieces are only sculptures by default; they mainly function as forensic evidence of failure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

Andra Ursuta  (1979)

 

Ursuta is geboren en getogen in Roemenië. Ze groeide op in zoals ze zegt “a shitty house in a shitty town in a shitty country”. Haar laatste middelbare schoojaar doorliep ze in Florida (VS) als uitwissel-student en ze is in het land gebleven, in 1997 kwam ze

naar New York. Haar werk grijpt terug op jeugdervaringen maar, zegt ze, ik ben niet echt een Roemeense kunstenaar, als ik daar nog had gewoond had ik dit werk niet kunnen maken.

 

Ze denkt dat veel mensen van haar leeftijd in Roemenië nu nog steeds ‘Ceausescu’s generatie’ zijn omdat ze geboren werden in een tijd dat abortus illegaal was. “Veel van ons zijn ongewenste kinderen. If it weren't for him, we wouldn't be here. I certainly wouldn't be here.”

 

Haar werk is vaak autobiografisch maar ze vindt het niet belangrijk dat mensen dat weten omdat het gevaarlijk is als de zeggingskracht van een werk afhankelijk is van die kennis. Want als die kennis er niet meer is, zakt het werk in elkaar als het daardoor gedragen werd. Een kunstwerk moet op zichzelf kunnen staan zelfs als ze daarvoor afgietsels van haar eigen lichaam heeft gebruikt. “I feel like with the pieces where I used my body, or parts of my body, there is a physical comedy that is implied in what the piece is. Like a tragicomedy.”

 

“Art is a way for me to test-drive uncomfortable things.”  (Bron)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

Saatchi Gallery, Londen

 

Foto’s: november 2013

 

 

 

 

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