Jana Gunstheimer – Reaktionäre Heimarbeit

Galerie Zink Waldkirchen, Waldkirchen2, 92358 Seubersdorf id Opf., Germany
March 1st – May 2nd, 2021
www.zink-waldkirchen.de

In January, Jana Gunstheimer spent a few weeks as artist in residence at the Zink Gallery. Deep in winter, the whole area was cloaked in snow and she had an incredibly productive time. The completed works are now displayed in the studio she was working in.

The artist worked on a new series of textiles work inspired by the stark, snowy landscape of January. Titled “Reaktionäre Heimarbeit”, the series includes a series of works that Gunstheimer meticulously painted and weaved together. Blending both painting and textiles craft, the monochrome works have a strong graphic aesthetic. As lines criss cross over each other, some central figures float against the pixelated background.

The precision of the text, lines, and shapes make them almost seem like digital animation. And yet that could not be further away from the truth: which is that the artist hand paints strips of canvas and weaves them back together for this effect. The human touch is all over the works.

Jana Gunstheimer was born in 1974 in Zwickau, Germany. A deeply thoughtful and intellectual individual, the artist had originally studied ethnology. Field research methods trained in that period are often used in her artistic work. Beyond her detailed drawings, complex textile works, thought provoking installations, she also founded the Institute for Iregional Reality Experients at the Bauhaus University, Weimar (IRRE@bauhaus). Through her oeuvre, the artist weaves together reality and fiction, creating possible truths and absurd situations. Each of her projects are subtly ironic. As she presents her narraitves, researches, and analyses, the knowing audience is simultaneously provoked and amused. The artist currently lives and works in Germany.