Inherently light, filled with air and not subjected to gravity, they symbolise the weighty feelings of pain, grief and loss that can drag our psyche down. Surfaces skin-alike, taut, discoloured, and fleshy, with knots and orifices into bodies, feelings, and memories.
The backdrop they are painted against is dense, flat, and impenetrable, like light-bending black holes from where there is no escape. It is in this void where Stamselberg's own grief resides and where her balloons tumble under an immense gravitational pull.
Stamselberg's artistic style favours a distinctive and unsettling realism with her inflatables as the central element. Her compelling work can be understood as a reflection on birth, death, and kinship.
Image:
Navel Gazing, oil on linen, 2023, 1200 mm diameter
Courtesy and ©Nadja Stamselberg and Renee Pfister Art & Gallery Consultancy, 2023.
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