Ariane Vonmoos Selected works 2022
Ariane Vonmoos (*1988, Lucern, Switzerland) lives and works in Zurich. After a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts at the Ecole cantonale des beaux-arts of Lausanne (ECAL) in 2012 she achieved a Master of Arts in Fine Arts in the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHdK) in 2017. After having studied photography, she rapidly oriented her artistic practice towards large format paintings. It is mainly through painting and ceramic but also more generally through a long material and pigment/color experimentation that she renders her interest in questions of identity, corporeality, relationship with and domestication of nature, but also the sense of belonging and fragility of existence. For her more recent works made of plaster and fiberglass, she engraves, she removes material as if to better get to the core of things. Regularly using contemporary emblems of the popular culture, such as love signs or vegetal motives such as roses and other flowers, she is digging into the deceptive nature of seductive beautiful images and long-lasting mythologies well anchored in the collective consciousness. Ariane Vonmoos exhibited in places such as Upstate (2018) and Longtang (2020) in Zurich, Kunstmuseum Luzern (2021), Anton Bortis and Helmhaus (2022), in Zurich. She is a recipient of the Art Scholarship 2022 of the City of Zurich.
Awake, Take, Work, Howl, Love, Part, Rest Anton Bortis, Zurich 2022
Awake, Take, Work, Howl, Love, Part, Rest, 2021 Farbpigmente auf Gipsplatte 100 x 150 x 2.5 cm
Wake, Take, Work, Howl, Love, Part, Rest, 2021 Farbpigmente auf Gipsplatte 100 x 150 x 2.5 cm
Mme. Hardy, 2022 Gipsplatte, Eisen 140 x 140 x 44 cm
Los Angeles, 2022 Farbpigmente auf Gipsplatte 47 x 29 x 6 cm
Blaze, 2022 Fabpigmente auf Gipsplatte 38 x 46 x 6 cm
Hyprid perpetual, 2022 Farbpigmente auf Gipsplatte 40 x 42 x 6 cm
Awake, Take, Work, Howl, Love, Part, Rest Text by Marie DuPasquier “They’re a widespread wild land, or many species of plant, and a widely domesticated one, with new varieties created every year, and when it comes to the latter, roses are also big business. Roses meant everything, which skates close to meaning nothing.”1 « Bread for all! » What if the purpose of this claim was not sufficient for a life completion which would as much need “beauty, delight, love or just a rich interior life”2? Simple joys of existence such as gardening, looking at roses grow, enjoying the life’s physical pleasures would fulfil an existence aspiring to freedom. So opens Rebecca Solnit’s book “Orwell’s Roses“ and her investigation on Orwell’s love for gardening and pastoral life and the idealized aesthetic of the 18th century before opening on a large investigation on the roses’ long-lasting cultural mythology. She deconstructs from the perspective of a large economic and social analysis this well anchored symbol in the collective memory and uses it as a trigger to question Orwell’s work and political engagements. Apparently organized and domesticated, Ariane Vonmoos‘ garden invites us to circumambulate through the attractive plants. They ramp or rest in tenuous balance. They are here and seem not to care about our presence but rather develop autonomous qualities and resistance strategies to their, sometimes hostile, environment. As seductive as they might appear, roses nevertheless could unveil a little foretelling insect. Exactly like the one installed on this rosy rose of the 17th century’s still life “Vaso di fiori con due farfalle, un afide e due Murcidi”3 by the Italian court painter Giovanna Garzoni. With impeccable naturalism and a soft chromatic tonality, the painter reminds us in small doses of our inevitable tendency to wither, the finitude of our own existence but also the indefinite circle of rebirths, the continual repetition, the endlessness of the life cycle. Ouroboros, infinitely.
Fearing and Wanting, 2022 Inkjet print, Eisenrahmen 12 x 16 x 5 cm
Part of the cycle of life and death, once cut, roses take the immediate path of death and become part of an ultra-commercial production chain of love signs owned by powerful lobbies; perhaps even one of the most ferocious capitalist enterprises to draw in and exhaust popular culture. Furthermore, the large scale production of this coveted object contributes to the dramatic degradation of environmental and social conditions. Made of plaster and fiberglass, Ariane Vonmoos' carved sculptures are robust. And if their gentle tones emerge sharply from the white-cube-like context, the elements are still exposed to vulnerable situations or disbalance, which emphasizes the instability of their existence. They absorb the diluted pigments as well as the complexity of the flowers’ examination. Thus, leading us to a broader reflection on the ambiguity of these emblems that compose our neo-liberal consumerist society’s pop culture. Ariane Vonmoos guides us through the fragility of our being and the meanings of beauty, love and sensuality and wishes for softness. 1“Orwell’s Roses”, Rebecca Solnit, 2021, p. 15 2 “What George Orwell’s Roses Tell Us About His Politics”, Suzannah Lessard, NYTimes, 2021 3 English: Vase of flowers with two butterflies, an aphid and two Murcids
Lurking Reaktor, Zurich 2019
Should I add more, 2019 Ölfarbe, Graphit auf Gipsplatte 100 x 150 x 2.5 cm
No, no, no! Slower, 2019 Wachspastelle auf Gipsplatte 100 x 150 x 2.5 cm
Sets In collaboration with Bernhard Hegglin Longtang, Zurich 2019
Set 6, 2019 Keramik, dreiteilig 42 x 34 x 23 cm
Set 4, 2019 Keramik, dreiteilig 26 x 20 x 25 cm
Set 10 (Tiguan & Sundial), 2019 Keramik. zweiteilig 24 x 19 x 14 cm
Set 8 (Flowers and Trees), 2019 Keramik, sechsteilig 25 x 26 x 32 cm
Set 5, 2019 Keramik, zweiteilig 23 x 18 x 21 cm
Paintings
You don‘t belong (here), 2021 Egg tempera, pastels on streched canvas 180 x 220 x 4 cm
Reset, 2020 Oil on paper 115 x 150 cm
Girlhood, 2019 Acrylic, graphite, wax pastels, spraypaint on unstreched canvas 300 x 260 cm
Ariane Vonmoos
*1988 lives and works in Zurich Education
2018
„Poster Fantastique“, Im Giebel, Zurich „House warming“, Hamlet, Zurich
2017
„MA Fine Arts Degree Show“, Toni Areal, Zurich
2016
„Dog heart after gloom“, Diana, Los Angeles
2014 - 2017
ZhdK, MA Fine Arts, Zurich
2009 - 2012
écal, BA Visual Arts in Photography, Lausanne
2008 - 2009
HSLU Design& Kunst, Preparatory course, Lucerne
2020
2004 - 2007
Kurzzeitgymnasium Musegg, major filed Arts, Lucerne
Collection
Publication
Canton Lucerne
Solo shows 2022
„Awake, Take, Work, Howl, Love, Part, Rest“, Anton Bortis, Zurich
2020
„Nourish to Flourish“, Rindermarkt 23, Zurich
2019
„Sets“, Longtang, Zurich
2019
„Lurking“, mit Anna Stüdeli, Reaktor, Zurich
2018
„Swimgood“, Up State, Zurich
2015
„Mappa Mundi“, RETO, Zurich
2013
„Triangle“, Alpineum, Lucerne
Group shows 2022
„Filter Bubble“, attheoff. space, Zurich „Peace“, Rindermarkt 23, Zurich
2021
„Missed U“, Area Manca, Zurich „&zines“, Zarinbal Khoshbakht, Cologne
2020
„zentral!“, Kunstmuseum Luzern
2019
„Drawn“, m3m3m3, Zurich
Umami, Ariane Vonmoos, published by Innen Books, Zurich ww.innenzines.com/index.php?/zines/ariane-vonmoos/