Daniela Fromberg

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Daniela Fromberg

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White Cube Cases, 2005
Lambdaprints and objects
KUBUS - Municipal Gallery of Hanover, Germany

More images: www.artnews.org/danielafromberg

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Artist’s statement by Daniela Fromberg

My work has varied in media, but somehow the main theme as always been the readable surface - mostly of individual representation in relation to social conventions. My interest is the playful act of creating culture. Two examples from my body of work are the series Blue Box Bilder [blue box images] and the project Skinny Bag Laboratories®.

Skinny Bag Laboratories® is a new company, that concentrates on the launching of its product Skinny Bag® on the market. The Skinny Bag® is a psychological-somatic aid and remedy, that is carried as a rucksack. I case of acute need it protects from the hyperstimulation of outer influences by slipping into its transparent interior and helps at the same time to reduce the more and more often arising environmental- and contact-sensitivities. The complete production of the Skinny Bag® is based on recent scientific discoveries about the functions and mechanisms of the „irritant protection failure“. The work is presented in form of a stand at a fair or shop – preferable out of art context. There exist posters, displays, flyers, booklets, stamps, a counter, a presentation portfolio for the sales representative and a range of different Skinny Bags®.

Belonging to the field somewhere between Wilhelm Reich’s Orgon-Accumulator, Siegmund Freuds thesis of the irritant protection and the longing for individuality, the Skinny Bag® offers an - almost - too simple solution for complex problems. It mirrors the promise of fashion. Although offering superficially tactile experiences to the consumer because of the positive colours and forms of the shop-installations and walk-acts of the Skinny Bag Laboratories®, an important part of the work persists in texts. If you are interested in a closer look, I would be pleased to send you a pdf-document of the image booklet "Reizschutzversagen?" or its translation “Irritant protection failure?”. It describes a range of different Skinny Bag®s, areas of application and is providing the client with first orientation for buying. It contains as well a declaration of the philosophy of the company and the medical-psychological research programs of the Skinny Bag Laboratories® with their historical background.

The stagings of the series Blue Box Bilder [blue box images] gets the body of the actress (the artist herself) out of real life and sets it in the Blue Box, becoming a separate space in which everything is equally true, real and possible. In the conscious play with identities and conventions in apparently recognized pictures, there are liasions to the studio-photography genre and stereotypes from cinema, fashion, television and advertising; a cultural theatre then, communicating almost exclusively via the surfaces, which makes the border of the body as a readable surface and visual object become more important. These are pictures of conceptually general meaning, which articulate strong feelings, atmosphere and emotions. As such it is not well defined, what should be taken seriously and by what one may be amused. An ironic mobility makes it indifferntiable what is personal creation, genuine quotation or sensitive pastiche. The lightness of their representation has to do with the ficticious rules, the unselfconsciousness and the seriousness of children’s games. The covering with clothing lends an anonymous, plastic quality to the body, actively suppressing the individuallity and forcing the body into otherwise unthinkable movements and positions.

Out of the blue
by Dr. Wolf Jahn, Hamburg

Without this colour she would never have had a career. For better or for worse she would have had to turn blue to be noticed. But then even more strongly and more emphatically as the Blue Flower. Since then she embodies the symbol of romatic depth and wanderlust, opening thousands of possibilities to loose oneself in infinity or to drink the sweet pain of the unachievable.

We probably owe it to one of those numerous historical moods that the Blue Flower has found her successor in this area of technical reproduction. But wether by chance or not, even the blue of the Blue Box of a film studio gives us some information about the qualities of this box, whose limitation defines its unboundedness. Where the blue of the box forms the walls, ceilling and floor, doors open into the infinite. Because the technology overlooks it, pictures can be cast over pictures in the blue of this box. Out of the blue.

Of course Blue Flower and Blue Box are worlds apart. While the one roams longingly in the deepness, the other opens the play with the surfaces.The first develops itself from an identity-forming - however imaginary - root, whereas the Blue Box has hauled in her own native anchor. It is the prototype of the Holo-Deck on Starship Enterprise, in which people can travel with and in projections. And she understands to be a clever counterpart to the Black Box. Not adding, but removing security is her business.

Daniela Fromberg

1968 born in Celle, Germany

Lives and works in Berlin, Germany

Education

2003-06 Master of Arts, University of Arts, Berlin
2001-03 Teaching Post for Concept Art, University of Applied Arts and Sciences Hanover
2000 Visiting Scholar at the International Women's University, Hanover
1999-00 Master of Fine Arts Course with Prof. Ulrich Eller, University of Applied Arts and Sciences Hanover
1996-99 Study of Fine Arts, Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas, UNAM, Mexiko City
1993-99 Study of Fine Arts, University of Applied Arts and Sciences Hanover

Grants

2004-06 Scholarship of the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation
2004 Travelgrant of the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation for Mexico
2001-03 Dorothea-Erxleben-Grant of Lower Saxony, Germany
2000 Scholarship as a Visiting Scholar at the International Women's University
1998-99 Grant of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for Mexico
Young Artists Grant of the Heitland-Foundation
1996-97 National Grant for Fine Art Studies in Mexico

Solo Exhibitions

2007 Can you shift your playground, please? - Simulacrum 1, Gallery Hinterconti, Hamburg
2005 Orbis Tertius, Municipal Gallery Kubus, Hanover
2004 White Cube Cases, Gallery Hinterconti, Hamburg
2001 Skinny-Bag-Laboratories, feat. by Unfriendly Takeover, Main Station of Frankfurt
1997 Dooom, Sound-Installation and Drawings, Leo Trotzkij Museum, Mexico

Group Exhibitions

2007 klang | wirklichkeit - sound | realitiy, UNI.K Studio der UdK, Berlin
En vecka i solen / One week in the sun, Botnik Studios, Gerlesborg Schweden
2006 Rio, Galerie Artnews Projects, Berlin
2005 Seven Floors, Ministry of Science and Culture, Hanover (Catalog)
2004 Yellow Pages, Palazzo, Liestal, Switzerland (Edition)
2003 Fresh Art, Cookies, Program of the Art Forum Berlin
Evolutionary Cells, NGBK, Berlin and Museum Quarter, Vienna
2002 Abfahrt, Ihme-Center, Hanover
Route Pi, Interacción Urbana and Museo de la Ciudad de Mexico (Edition with + CD-R)
2001 First International Sculpture Symposium, Códbar, Spain
Young Art, Allbank, Hanover (Catalog)
Digital Worlds, Recklinghausen (Catalog)
2000 MastersS of Fine Art 2000, Municipal Gallery Kubus, Hanover (Catalog)
Agriexpocultura, Special Award, Theme-Park Expo 2000, Hanover
1998 Seven Artists at Castle Ludwigstein, Witzenhausen (Catalog)
Diálogos Espaciales, Ecological Zone of Xochmilco, Mexico City
1997 Exposición Lesbica-Gay, University Museum CHOPO, Mexico City
Tiempos de Desconfianza, Gallery Luis Nishizawa, ENAP, Mexico City
1996 Space Art, International Aeronautics Fair Berlin

2005 Seven Floors, Ministry of Science and Culture, Hanover (Catalog)
2004 Yellow Pages, Palazzo, Liestal, Switzerland (Edition)
2003 Fresh Art, Cookies, Program of the Art Forum Berlin
Evolutionary Cells, NGBK, Berlin and Museum Quarter, Vienna
2002 Abfahrt, Ihme-Center, Hanover
Route Pi, Interacción Urbana and Museo de la Ciudad de Mexico (Edition with + CD-R)
2001 First International Sculpture Symposium, Códbar, Spain
Young Art, Allbank, Hanover (Catalog)
Digital Worlds, Recklinghausen (Catalog)
2000 MastersS of Fine Art 2000, Municipal Gallery Kubus, Hanover (Catalog)
Agriexpocultura, Special Award, Theme-Park Expo 2000, Hanover
1998 Seven Artists at Castle Ludwigstein, Witzenhausen (Catalog)
Diálogos Espaciales, Ecological Zone of Xochmilco, Mexico City
1997 Exposición Lesbica-Gay, University Museum CHOPO, Mexico City
Tiempos de Desconfianza, Gallery Luis Nishizawa, ENAP, Mexico City
1996 Space Art, International Aeronautics Fair Berlin

Projects

Skinny-Bag-Laboratories 1999-2001
Blue Box Bilder 2000
White Cube Cases 2002-2005

Links

http://www.daniela-fromberg.com

Daniela Fromberg

Prenzlauer Berg
10439 Berlin

fromberg@gmx.de
www.daniela-fromberg.com