Aura Rosenberg is an artist who lives in New York and Berlin. Her works explore the themes of body, sexuality, and gender. In the late 1980s, Rosenberg was well-known for her sculptures, photographs, and paintings made from and inspired by erotic images in pornography magazines.
The Bull, The Girl + The Siegessäule is Rosenberg’s first solo exhibition in Berlin for ten years. Rosenberg presents her new series of lenticular prints. This series reminds the viewer of two sculptures from Lower Manhattan’s Financial District, which are, the late Arturo di Modica’s Charging Bull (1989) and Kristen Visbal’s Fearless Girl (2017). Di Modica located the bull in front of the New York Stock Exchange. Then, the Fearless Girl was placed directly before the bull, as if she challenge the bull. However, following complaints from Charging Bull’s sculptor, eventually, the Fearless Girl was relocated to its current location.
On the exhibition’s floor, Rosenberg set a large installation of the Siegessäule miniatures, entitled The Missing Souvenir (2003). The Siegessäule or the Victory Column was built to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Second Schleswig War. Before Rosenberg in collaboration with KW (Kunst-Werke) Institute for Contemporary Art produced the Siegessäule miniatures, ‘the Berlin monument had never been available as a tourist memento’. These small sculptures call back a ‘discordant relationship to official history’.
The Fearless Girl, The Charging Bull, and The Siegessäule have a thing in common, they questions ‘what desires and memories lie hidden in the monuments surrounding us’.
Aura Rosenberg, You seem to look right through me, 2021. lenticular print. 183 x 123 x 4 cm (framed). Courtesy of Artist. Efrimidis Gallery. https://www.contemporaryartdaily.com
You seem to look right through me (2021) is one of Rosenberg’s works in lenticular print. It depicts the fearless girl facing the bull that has transformed into a man holding a dagger. The bull is ready to kill the girl. The artist represents the patriarchal power in the figure of a bull with the phallus. The girl is painted transparent and juxtaposed with paint splash-tainted bull. This work looks like multi-layers as it applies lenticular printing that is a special technique to create unique animated images, by using multiple images or multiple layers of single image.
Aura Rosenberg, What do you see of the day but night, 2021. lenticular print. 242 x 122 x 6 cm (framed). Courtesy of Artist. Efrimidis Gallery. https://www.contemporaryartdaily.com/
What do you see of the day but night (2021) depicts man’s and woman’s legs fighting or having sexual intercourse. This ambiguous image has a labyrinth in black and white as the background. This work portrays the complex relationship between woman and man. This painting also might be related to the fearless girl statue that has been criticized as “corporate feminism”. Corporate feminism usually happens in a corporate in which professional women adopt the mindset that to succeed they need to push down their enemies and competitors, including other women. This painting describes the ambiguous relationship between corporate and feminist corporate.
Aura Rosenberg, I want to penetrate men’s dreams, their secret heavens and remote stars, those called upon when dawn and destiny are at play, 2021. lenticular print.183 x 123 x 4 cm (framed). Courtesy of Artist. Efrimidis Gallery. https://www.contemporaryartdaily.com/
Another interesting thing about Rosenberg’s works is the title of the painting. She combines poetry as the title and the paintings, so it can make powerful works about woman empowerment. For example, I want to penetrate men’s dreams, their secret heavens and remote stars, those called upon when dawn and destiny are at play (2021) portrays the fearless girl with hands in her hip, standing in front of a colorful hole symbolizes someone’s dream. The paint splash like watercolor and lenticular printing make a perfect dreamy effect.
The Bull, The Girl + The Siegessäule is on view through 20 January 2022 at Efremidis, Berlin.