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ARM.ED/001


Group Exhibition
Arsenal Contemporary Art, 214 Bowery, NY

ARM.ED/001 is a series of three portraits. The poses, clothing, and accessories of the subjects suggest both athletic activity and armament. They serve as social codes, decontextualizing military and outdoor clothing for fashion purposes. The three individuals exemplify a young generation that has experienced a real war in close proximity while simultaneously preparing, disguising, or making visible their lives in the urban environment. Barbara Lüdde's artistic style soothes the themes with softness, giving the fictional characters the aura of desperate grace, appearing as innocent questioners and seekers.

barbara lüdde

  ARM.ED/001 (Triptychon), 303 × 65 cm

barbara lüdde

   ARM.ED/001 (Detail), 101 × 65 cm

On the left page, we encounter a masked figure. However, the mask, which resembles that used in fencing, features an affixed smiling emoji. The mask both protects and conceals, simultaneously disguising the person's true feelings from the outside world. With an arm extended at a right angle towards the viewer, the figure conveys its message using three outstretched fingers. The other arm is placed protectively on its head. Large clamps, also repurposed, attempt to hold together the flowing garment that threatens to fall apart.

 

Below, at the right edge of the picture, a second person is suggested by the tip of a modern sneaker. They look at us over the rim of their mirrored glasses and have a net tattooed on their upper arm.
Skin plays an important role in Lüdde's drawings. It is not only a canvas for maps of the characters of the depicted personalities but also the organ that surrounds the body, separating the inside from the outside, mediating between them, and allowing for sensation.

 

barbara lüdde

  ARM.ED/001 (Detail), 101 × 65 cm

barbara lüdde

   ARM.ED/001 (Detail), 101 × 65 cm

In the third image, threads extend from the fingers of the depicted figure, converging at a point in the air. Her arm is that of a robot. The figure wears neither a mask nor glasses, but she has turned her gaze away from the viewers and towards the space she inhabits.
It seems that they all avoid confrontation with the real outside world.

The drawings are both a triptych and individual works. Just as this structure seeks cohesion and separation, so do the figures within them. Barbara Lüdde's images exhibit intrinsic contradictions, between separation and belonging, between calm and struggle, and between defense and protection.

Text: Elisa Mosch (in excerpts and translated into English)


barbara lüdde

Exhibition view, 2022, Arsenal Contemporary Art NY

Funded by Stiftung Kunstfonds and Neustart Kultur
Repro Photos by Edward Greiner
Exhibtion Photo by Greg Carideo
Arsenal Contemporary Art – New York City 2022
Curated together with Stems Gallery

ARM.ED/001


Group Exhibition
Arsenal Contemporary Art, 214 Bowery, NY

ARM.ED/001 is a series of three portraits. The poses, clothing, and accessories of the subjects suggest both athletic activity and armament. They serve as social codes, decontextualizing military and outdoor clothing for fashion purposes. The three individuals exemplify a young generation that has experienced a real war in close proximity while simultaneously preparing, disguising, or making visible their lives in the urban environment. Barbara Lüdde's artistic style soothes the themes with softness, giving the fictional characters the aura of desperate grace, appearing as innocent questioners and seekers.

barbara lüdde

  ARM.ED/001 (Triptychon), 303 × 65 cm

barbara lüdde

   ARM.ED/001 (Detail), 101 × 65 cm

On the left page, we encounter a masked figure. However, the mask, which resembles that used in fencing, features an affixed smiling emoji. The mask both protects and conceals, simultaneously disguising the person's true feelings from the outside world. With an arm extended at a right angle towards the viewer, the figure conveys its message using three outstretched fingers. The other arm is placed protectively on its head. Large clamps, also repurposed, attempt to hold together the flowing garment that threatens to fall apart.

 

barbara lüdde

  ARM.ED/001 (Detail), 101 × 65 cm

Below, at the right edge of the picture, a second person is suggested by the tip of a modern sneaker. They look at us over the rim of their mirrored glasses and have a net tattooed on their upper arm.
Skin plays an important role in Lüdde's drawings. It is not only a canvas for maps of the characters of the depicted personalities but also the organ that surrounds the body, separating the inside from the outside, mediating between them, and allowing for sensation.

 

barbara lüdde

   ARM.ED/001 (Detail), 101 × 65 cm

In the third image, threads extend from the fingers of the depicted figure, converging at a point in the air. Her arm is that of a robot. The figure wears neither a mask nor glasses, but she has turned her gaze away from the viewers and towards the space she inhabits.
It seems that they all avoid confrontation with the real outside world.

The drawings are both a triptych and individual works. Just as this structure seeks cohesion and separation, so do the figures within them. Barbara Lüdde's images exhibit intrinsic contradictions, between separation and belonging, between calm and struggle, and between defense and protection.

Text: Elisa Mosch (in excerpts and translated into English)


barbara lüdde

Exhibition view, 2022, Arsenal Contemporary Art NY

Funded by Stiftung Kunstfonds and Neustart Kultur
Repro Photos by Edward Greiner
Exhibtion Photo by Greg Carideo
Arsenal Contemporary Art – New York City 2022
Curated together with Stems Gallery