make sense

As the title of Zita David’s latest solo exhibition suggests, the emphasis is placed on the act of seeking meaning, on often ambivalent interpretative situations in the diary-like chapters of the exhibited works. Uncertainty, decontextualisation, and a sensation of being overwhelmed bind these – isolated yet congruent – puzzle-like fragments together. With meticulously recorded details wrapped in subtle melancholy and half-smiles, the artist invites the viewer to look closely. On the amnesiac surfaces of the white wall, personal observations meet banal juxtapositions: fragments of advertisements, dramatic hand portraits and loose doodles on droplet-spangled window panes. All this is completed with nature’s sublime majesty, the striking painterliness of tree barks, clouds and pine cones, which – due to the sharp focus delineating vivid tonal and colour values – become still and quiet macrocosms. The ephemeral constellations, which could topple over at any moment, are counterpointed by visions of sculptural transformation: the feet of a bronze figure resting on marble, the object of an enigmatic glass mask or a museum plaque informing us of the temporary absence of an artwork. Lyrical narratives outline non-linear paths here. In her painterly practice, Zita David is concerned with the subjective, evocative observation of her environment and the exploration of the associated memories, a key aspect of which is her desire to record the multiplicity and accumulation of details. Her work presents ambiguous states of mind interspersed with dissonance, humour and irony.