Tekst achterflap

This catalogue is a collection of many of the artworks exhibited in the recurring art show "monsters&humxns" by Mara von Scheffer and Anna-Maria Dirrigl (a.k.a. Anna Nave). It contains drawings, paintings, photography and poetry.Mara von Scheffer and Anna-Maria Dirrigl use their art as a form of self empowerment. Their creative work is an affirming way of dealing with hurt and trauma, as well as a confrontation with societal norms and restrictions. They make their inner reactions to their outer surroundings, to discrimination, violence and uncertainty visible and thus take back authority over themselves.

Kenmerk

This book is a collection of artworks by two queer people.With their drawings of mythical beings, Mara von Scheffer takes us into a phenomenal universe of magic, phantasy, and darkness. While you might think that these images show fictional characters, they are, in fact, representing occurrences from the real world. By depicting monstrous, disgusting and terrifying creatures in richness of detail, Mara von Scheffer is taking power over frightening things surrounding them: societal expectations, social insecurities, performance pressure.Anna-Maria Dirrigl focuses on processing personal trauma and structural marginalization by stressing and celebrating aspects of their own identity that differ from societal norms and are therefore targets for discrimination. Words and images break with a culture of silence and shame and lead to self empowerment, love, and connection. Body positivity, queerness, disability, intersectional feminism, and love are core contents of Anna-Maria's art. They publish their poetry under the pseudonym Anna Nave.Anna-Maria Dirrigl depicts and celebrates things that are often fatefully met with disgust, judgement, even fear: fat bodies, disabled bodies, Black bodies, people that cannot clearly be assigned to one binary gender, queerness, nudity.Meanwhile, Mara von Scheffer shows pictures of actually horrific monsters which are designed specifically to trigger these very reactions. The juxtaposition of these two aspects results in a suspenseful interaction between disgust and aesthetic, fear and love, helplessness and power.What is monstrous, and what is humxn?

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