The Future is Now Part II: Re/Form~ation at CasildART Contemporary is an innovative exhibition exploring the profound dialogue between material and form. The exhibition features seven artists; Àsìkò, Donald Baugh, Christopher Day, Othello De’Souza-Hartley, Elaine Mullings, Margaret Scott and Theresa Weber.
The featured artists use different mediums including painting, sculpture, photography, textiles and glass, to challenge outdated paradigms and transform everyday objects into powerful artistic expressions.
Culturalee spoke to Theresa Weber about her preferred medium and what the exhibition title ‘The Future is Now Part II: Re/Form~ation’ means to her.
Theresa Weber was born in Düsseldorf in 1996 and lives and works between North Rhine Westphalia and London. Through multimedia installations, sculptures, paintings and collaborative performances the artist seeks to challenge existing power hierarchies and fixed categorisations.
With a dynamic approach, she refers to ancient mythologies and historical research through collaging cultural materials from an anti-colonial lens. Her perspective as a German born artist with Jamaican, German and Greek background influences her artistic approach. In 2014, Theresa Weber completed her studies at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where she studied in the classes of Katharina Grosse and Ellen Gallagher, from whom she received the Meisterschüler title. She then moved to London for a two-year postgraduate master’s degree at the Royal College of Art in sculpture, which she successfully completed in summer 2023. Weber was part of New Contemporaries UK in 2022 and won several awards and scholarships in Germany and the Netherlands.
Her first institutional solo shows took place at Dortmunder Kunstverein and Moltkerei Werkstatt e.V. Cologne in 2021, followed by several institutional and international shows, as for example at Ludwig Forum Aachen, Philara Collection Düsseldorf, Z33 Belgium, South London Gallery and her first public commission at Somerset House London. This year she had her first gallery solo show at ChertLüdde Berlin, which was followed by her first museum solo at Kunstmuseum Bochum this summer.
What does the exhibition title ‘The Future is Now Part II: Re/Form~ation’ mean to you, and how does your featured artwork relate to it?
Being part of The Future Is Now means to be part of a mission that seeks to include ideas of the past and presence in order to produce a better future. Especially being part of last year’s volume of the show where I was in conversation with artist Elaine and Gallerist Sukai makes it meaningful to me. My small scale paintings Comic Venus Purple and Cosmic Venus Black refer to mythological Goddesses that embody beauty, femininity and rebirth, and therefore symbolize hope and transformation.
Can you explain why you chose the medium you work with and what your creative process is?
In these works I used modelling mass and resin with embedded prints and jewellery elements, such as beads, clips and rings. With the idea of the mosaic, I create suggestive patterns of these objects that refer to carnival and Caribbean resistance. The prints depict a historical Venus stone sculpture that is covered with resin, as a layer of protection. The painting becomes an archive of body extensions that mark the intersectional body and represent collective identity, as well as strength through feminine attributes.
‘The Future is Now PT.II: Re/Form ~ation’ is at CasildART Contemporary until 7th September, 2024.
