Yvonne Roeb Echo III (Starnberger Heilige) 2022 Collage

Echo
Yvonne Roeb

25 September 2022 to 19 February 2023

Yvonne Roeb has developed a walk-in installation for the chapel in Lochmann House. Entitled Echo, it is a response to the room and Ignaz Günther’s 1755 sculpture Female Saint of Starnberg, which is permanently on display here. Roeb was inspired by the rococo figure to produce a three-dimensional collage addressing the visualization and appropriation of femininity.

The artist has created a velvety blue niche for the saint in a recessed wall in front of the room’s rounded apse. A crescent-shaped gap at the top of the new wall provides an indication of the cavity behind it. The Female Saint of Starnberg is framed by a rhombus appearing to float in the middle of the room. The object is reminiscent of a mandorla – an aureole enclosing an entire figure that was widespread in religious paintings in the Middle Ages. The rhombus is continued in the lines and patches of color on the carpet, where a human leg – the artist’s – lolls coquettishly. It’s a placeholder for function and sensation, for the sensual and the supersensual – after all, replicas of body parts made of wax, wood, or sheet metal had served as offerings since pre-Christian times. Two sculptures, also with female-looking body forms, can be seen in a showcase. Meanwhile, two small-format collages exude a haunting narrative power owing to the combination of images full of violence, desire, and human vulnerability compiled by the artist.

The artist’s book ARTIFIZIARIUM III has been produced as part of this exhibition.

Yvonne Roeb was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1976. She lives and works in Berlin and Paris.