In my drawing practice I have been developing a language of marks and symbols, which I repeat and re-combine in pattern like compositions.  Some of those little forms are deliberately simplistic, reminiscent of shapes found in cartoons.  As my drawings got bigger in size I started to look at ways to explore alternative methods of mark making on a bigger scale. Perhaps as a response to observations that my drawings evoke a sense of movement, of being animated, I got inspired to attempt to literally get the lines and shapes off the page. After all, transformation is a key element in my approach on a formal level as well as content wise. Then there is the performative aspect in my work, where I use either a body (mostly myself), or dead animal (sourced from a food context) to stage, often surreal, scenarios. So actual (but not actual as indeed replica) salamis became my new working material. I applied the approach to how I work with ink on paper, exploring ways of using symbols and mark making, to something different. I purposefully chose the phallic shape of the sausage, more precisely the Italian version, (another component in my work is to play with stereotypes…  an Italian version of anything is sexier and just happier – “La dolce Vita” will always be my mantra) as my interest in bodily pleasures covers the full spectrum from food to sex and what could lie in between.

I examine the concept of transformation on various levels, from the medium I use to the actual context of the subject matter: a living creature, a pig becoming a pork and then a, in my view, grotesque looking Italian delicatessen aka salami. On the other hand, the salamis used for my installations are cheap, plastic replicas, filled with nothing than air. These lifeless, purely decorative versions of the real thing are reminiscent of hilarious wannabe dildos of a divided world, in which one small fraction believes in the “land of plenty” (in German there is this fantastic word “Schlaraffenland”***) where ANYTHING pleasurable can rain from the sky, even sex (it might also be fake though…). Possibly the phrase of “careful what you wish for” comes to mind if one starts to imagine how that would all manifest itself (just remember the tragic ending of Pinocchio when he was lured into the “Land of Toys”)…  

In contrast to Dieter Roth’s utilization of the decaying process using real salami slices to make his famous “Sunset” prints (1968) I am interested in the IDEA of decay, the memory or awareness of the cycle of life in its various stages, however I choose to make a point with a REAL FAKE: a mass-produced piece of food, a mass-produced piece of Art to emphasize the impossibility of satisfaction. In a way the replica implies a state of frustration, the absence of life, but it doesn’t even mean death, as death is very much, if seen from a materiality viewpoint, “alive”, moving, changing, the metamorphosis like process Roth was interested in.  I am looking at the failure in the attempt for perfection or immortality.

The replica salamis are static, lifeless, images for our projections of desire…

I am attempting to give room for reflection on desire, greed and abundance, where we are confronted with uneasy feelings of fluctuating between pleasure and disgust as well as seduction and repulsion.

The basic concept of  “Salamirain” is that it can rain anywhere, which means it is an adaptable installation. So far it has been shown as a “Salamicloud” installed on a high ceiling at the New Art Gallery Walsall in Walsall and the Aberystwyth Arts Centre in Aberystwyth, as “Salamidream” installed in a historical bedroom on a four poster bed and various antique furniture at the PM Gallery & House in London, as “Salamicurtain” installed in the staircase of a victorian house in Hackney, London, as part of an artist-run temporary project space. Currently there is a small “Salamicurtain” installed in my studio, to camouflage a bookshelf with admin and archive files and make me believe I am in Schlaraffenland whilst working.

***“Cockaigne or Cockayne is a land of plenty in medieval myth, an imaginary place of extreme luxury and ease where physical comforts and pleasures are always immediately at hand and where the harshness of medieval peasant life does not exist. Specifically, in poems like The Land of Cockaigne, it is a land of contraries, where all the restrictions of society are defied (abbots beaten by their monks), sexual liberty is open (nuns flipped over to show their bottoms), and food is plentiful (skies that rain cheese).”

Wikipedia