Barbara Lüdde's work deals with marginalized subjects in distinction from and turning towards the majority society. In elaborate drawings – made with ink on paper – Lüdde captures moments in the discovery of identity and gender, the urge to belong satisfied through habits of consumption and the urge to deviate. Barbara Lüdde is mostly presenting fiktive, often single and format filling figures, which depict in filigree details sub- and pop-cultural codes: clothes, poses, accessories, hairstyles, tattoos and patches which cue to the subject‘s identity. In bricolage manner, a diverse assemblage of cultural references come together to form a new whole. Barbara Lüdde explores the emergence of the "self" in the midst of the capitalist world order – between appropriation and alienation, between inner and outer powers that constantly play on individuals. The figures come across fearlessly strong and original, but at second glance deeply fragile, torn between pressures.
Barbara Lüdde's practice consists mainly of figurative drawing, but also of installation, animation, object and sound.
