Anohni
My Truth
James Elaine
Peter Hujar
Kazuo Ohno
23 07 16
16 10 16
Through October 16 the Kunsthalle Bielefeld will present the exhibition Anohni. My Truth. Anohni, born in 1971, is the singer for the renowned New York-based avant-garde group, Antony and the Johnsons. Anohni herself has curated part of the show. Here, the artist gathers a number of works by others that were, and still are, important to her. They include the photographs of Peter Hujar (1934 – 1987), whose work documented key figures of the New York underground during the 1970s and 1980s. His portraits of artists, dancers, and intellectuals were juxtaposed with images of decay and death to create an existential meditation. The drawings and sculptures by the American artist James Elaine (b. 1950) will be shown for the first time in Europe. Elaine is an artist from California, who, in his own way, has created images of great melancholy. Finally, Anohni refers to the Japanese Butoh dancer Kazuo Ohno. Ohno’s performances combined traditional Japanese dance, German expressionism, and memories of manifestation and trauma, and have exercised considerable influence over Anohni’s own work and approach.
Works by Anohni herself will be on display on the second floor of the Kunsthalle Bielefeld. For about a decade Anohni has been quietly creating a body of visual art that testifies to her intense feel for the haptic qualities of materials. She has produced collages made out of found pieces and accumulated collections; she has created larger scale sculptural works and encaustic (hot wax) paintings. All the work supports an exploration of transformation/transcendence.
The show is sponsored by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes, the Kulturstiftung pro Bielefeld and the Stiftung der Sparkasse Bielefeld.