Tina Berning  The Listeners

Opening: Thursday, the 22^nd of January 2009
Exhibition from Janary 23^rd to March 7^th 2009


The words that sometimes appear in her drawings (e.g. “void”, “revolution” or “correction”) only seem to give information on the content of the sheet. Consequently, these expressions can be regarded merely as tokens of an additional layer of perception, which, in addition, can be resolved only subjectively, according to each beholder’s powers of observation. 

Another approach Tina takes with her works is to use glossy magazines from the lifestyle and consciousness industry, which she contrasts with materials from yellowed, torn or scrap paper. She rescues test books, separator sheets, classified ad forms, school exercise books and old record covers from flea markets before they are thrown away, and reuses these finds as materials in her work, to render visible the traces of aging, transience or death. 

In her drawings, Tina Berning plays with the collective figurativeness, yet at the same time she invests the people she draws with so much expression that they represent a threat to the social norm.

Tina Berning makes subtle corrections to the standard, uniform face, enabling a look of physical expressiveness to return. In her illustrations, she gives form back to the stereotypes. Even when they appear fragile and vulnerable, the faces and images of the people take on a form that is all the more resistive.

 ¹ Koschatzky, Walter: Die Kunst der Zeichnung. Bd. 1 Salzburg Wien 1977, S. 420