Johanna Odersky, « Voyeuse », Paris

The title of the exhibition, chosen by Johanna Odersky, makes direct reference to its particular context. « Voyeuse » can be seen only from the road, at all hour of the day and night. It exposes itself to the regard of spectators that haven’t necessarily solicited it, in the manner of a voyeur who who spies upon intimate moments which aren’t necessarily offered to him. The domestic sphere, which Odersky associates with that of the shop window, is traditionally considered the privileged place of these moments of intimacy. It’s characterised by its ambiguity, at once a site of oppression and constraint, but also of emancipation for the “voyeusEs”.

Johanna Odersky conceives her artistic practice and her music and sound experiments as being intimately linked and complementary. Realised specifically for this shopwindow at 10 rue Bonaparte in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, this new body of work continues the artist’s approach of measuring time by the layering of motifs and the creation of a pictorial melody. Johanna Odersky takes an interest in the movements that characterise our relation to time, to certain phenomena like the rhythm of day and night, the change of seasons, or the waxing and waning of the moon. These cyclical actions define the composition of her drawings and paintings, typified by circular forms. The cycles can change or merge according to certain events, and the artist explores these new modes of synchronisation and harmony.

Odersky makes an analogy between these sensorial acts and architectural references linked to Art Nouveau and Symbolism. The arabesque motif that she develops can be compared to a partition: with her particular attention to the spatial structure, she abstracts certain dynamics, certain relations, certain harmonies rather than representing something visible to the human eye. The artist also employs a diamond motif. It refers to the realm of heraldry, where its use permitted to characterise a woman as single or widowed, whose destiny was not, or no longer, linked to that of a man. These diamonds are composed of intertwined rulers, measuring devices par excellence. They appear as two shields, protecting a free form in the center of the composition, which seems to turn endlessly.

Johanna Odersky (Swiss & German, b. 1993) is a visual artist and musician based in Berlin. She is a graduate from the Hochschule für Bildende Künste – Städelschule and studied in the class of Judith Hopf. Much of her work revolves around exploring how human experience is organized and embodied and how relationships between body, mind, and the external world are always and necessarily situated in discursive power relations. These questions are echoed in her musical work and performances, which she produces under the alias Iku. Her work has been shown in festivals, galleries, and other art spaces across Europe, Japan, Mexico, and the US. Recent solo exhibitions include ‘Time Keepers’, Intersticio, London (2020); ‘Ruffles’, Joanne, Frankfurt am Main (2020). Odersky is currently participating in the group exhibition ‘Lemaniana’ at Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva.