ARTISTS / NANA OHNESORGE

Profile

In I see dead people, German-born Nana Ohnesorge continues to explore the complexity of human nature through commemorative pop portrait paintings, drawings and sculptures.

This exhibition marks a shift in her narrative portraiture from a focus on historic European characters to an exploration of Australian history and its archetypes. It seeks to test the cultural, social and historical relevance of our shared iconography whilst addressing issues such as the fragility of human life, and the precariousness of our social structures.

By transforming mass-market image sources of death masks, historic portraits and common mythologies into a clash of layers in lurid candy colours, the viewer is invited to engage with the artist’s playfulness on a conceptual, artistic and optical level. In reflecting on German history and contemplating Australia’s past (with a strong wink to gothic romanticism), portrait studies of dead German terrorists mingle with drawings of dead Aussie bushrangers and various sculptures, in an exhibition which bridges the artist’s old and new worlds. The past is always present.