Portfolio Valeria Stuflesser 2023 Woman and more

Energies

Limewood, 52 x 78 x 18 cm, 2022

The sculpture „Energies“ is an abstraction of the two world essential energies light and water. In our mountains, where I live and work, these two livelihoods giving elements come together and move us to reverence and humility from forces of nature. These elements make our landscape livable, moreover they give us energy to exist. I have transformed these systems into one abstracted mystical symbol for their magical and beneficial effect to show. Not always these natural energies are beneficial, through the sharpy shape the aggression and revenge of mother earth should be treated.

Bondage

Lindenwood, 40 x 98 x 22 cm, 2022

The sculptor Valeria Stuflesser dedicates herself to current topics in a representational manner. Aware that sculpture is a pre-stressed field, since a strong connection to the art-historical past is quickly established through formal language, she is looking for a way to link contemporary topics in post-conceptual thinking, avoiding formal discourses and thereby creating a new sensibility. This was triggered by the urge to engage more deeply with issues of sculpture that go beyond the aesthetic purpose. The title of the work indicates a level behind the pure representation, which is the reason and the incentive to be artistically active. The sculptures allow the view of a cult-archaic worldview, but the formal language breaks in the futuristic-looking, abstracted sculptures.

Female hand of god

Bronce, 11 x 25 x 11 cm, 2019

This sculpture is a work on historical consistency. As the title suggests, the sculpture represents a hand. The index finger is clearly recognizable because of it’s straight shape and it’s form reduced to an elongated cone. The position of the hand of God is reminiscent of that of Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam", in which God the Father banishes humans from heaven. The index finger points to the earth here. Through this act it should also be said that from now on man judges the world only through good and evil. As other point of reference I chose Brancusi's "Bird in Space". This abstract figure of a bird has often been compared to the figure of a phallus. It is arguably absurd that God is always proclaimed as a gender-neutral, all-encompassing being, and yet the image of a God the Father has prevailed in art history and popular assertion. My sculpture also points to the ground, to the immediate ground. My contemporaries no longer think in binary terms, not just male and female, not just good and bad. That's why there's this little bronze sign, which brings us down to earth and gives us a respectful attitude to life. The "female" in the title is to be seen as an inclusive term, compared to the contemporary use of gender descriptions.

Bruja

Limewood, 31 x 33,5 x 28 cm, 2023

There are so many things in life that sap your energy. It is difficult to find places or moments that counteract and give life energy. So today I'm witnessing a widespread flight of the population into the world of sorcery and magic. I take up this topic and derived my title (bruja = Spanish witch) from it. In order to escape the constant distraction and to keep one's own focus in view, a wide variety of healing methods and concentration practices are used. My method is a sculptural one that aims to radiate energy in all directions and draw the viewer into themselves. I have sculpted this essential shape with the two protruding conical breasts, after primeval depictions of cultic figures of women. There are many issues I associate with this abstract representation of breasts. On the one hand, of course, the warmth of maternal care for her child, which we all once were, drooling on the milk of dreams and falling drunk on those bosoms in our sleep, but on the other hand, the direction of the future, this purposeful form points to the outside, defines the horizon and, like a symbol of luck, promises us the fertile land. The rigid form bespeaks excitement, but an explicitly feminine one, contrasting the concealed phallic symbol.I would like to add two more thoughts on dualism and contrast. In my work, the theme is also reflected in the composition and aesthetic appearance. If we reduce this sculpture to its essential lines, it is basically laid out in the form of a cross, all points radiating from a central point towards the cardinal points. Also important to me is the bending of the vertical bar and the associated re-approach of the superficial composition of an arch. Seen in this way, the dualism also spreads in the body of the sculpture. In my opinion, the return of a form is the splitting of the concentration on two points, along the connecting line of which energy always flows in the form of tension. The way in between is charged with it. The point in the middle is the most affected by this interaction because energies cross here and drift apart again.

Bound to a tradition

Cedarwood, 60 x 27 x 49 cm, 2019

The sculpture should look like a Madonna, I am bound by this tradition. In Val Gardena, where this sculpture was created, carved figures of saints are still sold today. I kept my figure abstract so that you can also see a vulva in the shapes of the robe. The bulges could represent fingers and one finger, the middle finger, represents our saint. The sculpture wants to address the Christian tradition of the Madonna as the Immaculate Virgin. Even in the origins of feminism, the function of women as mere reproductive machines was questioned severly. Medicine and biotechnology have made it possible for women to no longer be the only birth giver, for reproduction to move away from the feminine and dissociate from the sexual. This ties in with the character of Maria as the first feminist who doesn't need a man to reproduce.

Reproduction, no thanks!

Pinewood, 3D prints, installation, 100 x 180 x 24 cm 2021

Emotionally carried away by the reality of what biological reproduction can mean and how it has been manipulated to gain power at certain times in history, I created this work. In the days of my grandparents, you saw one sibling after another born into this world. If at some point one fell ill and died, the family did not mourn after this creature, but accept it as another angel in heaven. Women of childbearing age bore this function as a divine mission.So in my installation I made reference to the sacred by positioning the miniature prints around the figure in the shape of a halo. This figure of a woman is depicted in an ambivalent position. On the one hand, the position is reminiscent of that of a normal birth, but it is cramped and pulls the knees inward, twisting an opening.The reproductions on the wall are made of transparent plastic and optically disappear into the wall; they become stars whose light shadow falls on the middle figure of the woman.

Very clear (OK) cult

Epoxyresin, 3 stamps 60 x 80 x 2 cm, 2021

New ideals, old wisdom, the most diverse world views and identities live side by side in a small space today. Confusion is great for one searching for the right path. Does our society need new gods? However, this work is not about the personification of new ideals, but about real people who live out their own sacred and imitate gods. This work is about mimicri, simulating being, in order to be able to survive in today's society. Posing becomes a heroic act, while the deeds they perform are kept very decadent: the flag is pointing down, the bow is not drawn. Who is hiding behind these characters and who do they want to be? The lived-out wish to be someone else mystifies our everyday life and lets us dream a little during the day.

back to business

Styrofoam, 240 x 170 x 215 cm, 2021

Mystical being, virtual avatar. Huaca de la digitalidad.This energetic, animalistic-looking figure of a young woman in the act of getting up is symbolic of a general new beginning. In accordance with our zeitgeist of a new, female future, this sculpture expresses the many ideas behind this concept. For the feminine is a field of action, an earth. Based on the pre-Columbian image of "Pachamama" (= mother earth), I asked myself how this could have an impact on today's digital society. Initial feminist ideas revolving around the liberation of women from their reduction to fertility are now expanded by a new dimension. The virtual stage is a setting for ideals and new influences. Anyone can become active online and spread their own conception of reality.The figure has a magical task comparable to that of the sphinx: she is protector and informant, autonomous and yet bound to a greater event. The responsibility of the act of showing becomes recognizable through the blue color of the sculpture. This is conceptually linked to a blue screen, which is used in digital media to project an image on the screen that does not exist in reality. Now though, the blue screen isn't the background, it's the sculpture. So I play with the perception of a virtual world on the surrounding reality and, above all, on my own body. These two realities interact, one is inseparable from the other. What is it like to experience the world through zeros and ones and which digital ideal is projected onto the real body? At what point does the digital exceed our expectations of reality so that it becomes impossible to correspond to an ideal image, I ask myself the question.

Uncanny sweet robot

Pinewood, silvercoat, 31 x 30 x 33 cm, 2021

This robot with a human-like appearance is biting into an apple. Technological advances have brought many benefits to humans, and artificial intelligence is working to expand human competence. The apple in Christian iconography symbolizes man's original sin in paradise, but also heralds the age of human judgment between good and evil. In relation to the robot, the apple can symbolize the ability of the technical apparatus to "think" in a binary number system and also represents the energy consumption of that calculation more of a human person. I have expressed the merging and mutual inspiration between humans and technological aids in this sculpture. Why is a robot with a face that is too human-like disgusting (uncanny valley) and why is there any effort being made to make robots with human appearance unmistakable?

Atlantis

Installation with plastersculptures, ironstructure, 2021

The installation consists of a total of nine sculptures made of ghips - which are hollow inside - a loft bed, a library shelf, construction site panels and storage shelf panels. It is an installation alluding to the lockdown situation. It's about stillness, about shells, about fragility and about death. The abstract objects arranged around the loft bed form associations with human body parts, but are not clearly identifiable and are reminiscent of archaeological finds. The loft bed made of bars represents the enforced intimacy of the home environment.

Tryptich (Stalaksis, Root, Euca)

Plaster, willowwood, pinewood styrofoam, structure with iron and wood, 2018

Euca

Stalaksis

In this reorganization of independent works in the form of a triptych, I adapted two tables in the shape of a cross and raised them with a table leg structure. It is my attempt to expand the appearance of the base and to fit it into the concept of the installation. The works themselves suggest a connection with abstract forms of organisms without depicting anything specific. However, we can see the adaptation of organic forms to geometric structures that come from the industry and are themselves part of the sculptures. The composition seems to have formed in contrast, as it is the amorphous forms that envelop the straight lines of the structure, breaking its statics and hardness. The installation of the three works on the pedestal has a strong reference to religious cult, whereas the use of table material reminds the aesthetic of an office or laboratory. The placement of the works of art on an architectural structure is another antithesis of principles. The works appears to be objects taken from a missing imaginary body. Suspended on a flat table, they remind the brutality of the transfer act; Both from a medical point of view and from a demographic point of view, the cruel reality of being uprooted from the own contexts.

Natural. Weapon!

Olivewood, 2020

According to an Italian story, the unusual deformations of the olive tree can be explained as follows: When Roman soldiers were looking for a nice piece of wood for Jesus' cross, this rumor also made the rounds under the trees themselves. They began to protest against by bending in all directions so that no branch was straight. Thanks to this action, no olive wood was used for Jesus' cross. My sculptures depict violence in the form of guns. These are the last of the mechanical weapons. Because of the excessive effects of nuclear weapons, it is precisely these that led to the Freedom Accords. In a world where the destruction of it can be possible, the view of weapons has changed. Weapon technology is no longer the strategic power, but only our eternal unborn, whom we must guard and negate.

Big noodle

170 x 50 x 55 cm, Oak wood, 2019

The sculpture entitled “Big noodle” is an auto-referential sculpture. As an Italian, I often hold discussions about pasta with people I don't know, in the sense of getting to know each other. I feel like a pasta too: sometimes cooked through and tired, sometimes raw and proud. In addition to this personal story about noodles, I am interested in the social status of noodles. Everything can be over-sexualized, as in the case of the noodle. I wanted to connect several feelings with this sculpture: the staple food of the Italians, which always has to be taken into account with a new acquaintance and has to remind me in an unbending way of the fragility of the male genital, becomes inedible and difficult to digest due to the constant sexualization of everyday objects. Maybe I just have a problem with my own uptight?