Klara Landrat

In my childhood I found myself to be always surrounded by nature. Driven by curiosity and an eagerness to discover what goes on below the surface, I looked for carcasses of animals and explored their insides. Growing up in the desert I was drawn particularly to animals of the desert, such as snakes, lizards and scorpions. I couldn’t explain why with so many external differences between them I also found so many similarities. Over the years I developed a strong interest in the human body and its fascinating design. By the age of ten I began drawing bodies and faces with zeal and later opened a private ”hospital” in my own room, which consisted of dolls that were later to be operated on. My passion never ceased and it became stronger and more vital throughout the years. This passion is the point of origin for the paintings and drawings I create today. I discovered that the representation of the human body carries within itself a fascinating mystery that may be defined by one of the doctrines in my artistic mentor Immanuel Kant’s “Critique of Pure Reason”, which is the idea that all living forms could possibly exist if we are capable of perceiving them. In my work I try to explore the idea of possibility such as Kant presented it. My paintings consist of forms seemingly anatomical, but which are rather the representations of possibilities of the form that have not yet been seen, but that could still exist.

I work mostly in oils with an interplay of light and organic materials such as hair or plaster to enhance the phenomena of diversity found in nature. I seek to create images that are minimal yet complex - quiet yet energetic. I strive to engage the viewer in a curious way…challenging him with the perception of space and the forms that it contains. It is up to the viewer to decide whether the forms presented are observable in nature or are mere illusions. I want the viewer to recognize the enormous possibility that is offered to him through reflecting upon the infinity of objects that the human mind has not yet conceived versus the forms that are in front of him in my work, familiarly anatomical. I rely on the fact that while the human intellect as reason is potentially free from the conditions of our sensibility, understanding it is absolutely under the restraint of those conditions. I’m curious to see if reflection upon the possible forms in my work would cause the viewer to ponder the very nature of perception and whether he would find in himself the forms that could be intellectually intuitive - that could exist prior to our experience of them on one hand, and on the other, cognized only through our experience.

The visual expressions of Louise Borgeois, Lee Bontecou, Hans Bellmer and Eva Hesse propelled me into a continuation of my artistic performance and I found them to be my inspiration and guidance.

I feel a tremendous responsibility for the psychological and metaphorical qualities that my work evokes hence it is important to me if it is able to reach through barriers of consciousness and penetrate into the very core of human existence.