Esther Wuhrlin

The Paintings I work systematically in series of about 10 or 15 pieces. There are 2 directions in my painting: The first series is called "Transformation" and reveals hybrid and contemporary creatures, anxieties linked to technology or to the evolution of natural species. The second series of "Male Portraits" is a research that has occupied me for more than 15 years now and represents idealized faces with a Christ-like aesthetic testifying both to a personal phantasmagoria and to more or less conscious memories dating back to childhood and adolescence. The imagery is constantly fueled by encounters, learning about art history, my fascination with icons, "ex-votos", religious sculptures, Gothic and Germanic art (my roots) , engraving, but also manga, comics, science fiction ... This visual "mixing" is a strong material for my paintings but the realization of some of these portraits also has a "restorative" or even cathartic function , it makes it possible to "fix" a memory definitively before time comes to prevail. So I work entirely manually and I paint from photos (sometimes "selfies" from a cell phone) and the multitude of layers allow the portrait to "blur", the translucent layers then have the function of "freeze" the image as a Preservation process. The Drawings More intimate, more "raw" and more spontaneous, they all belong to different series ("Vanilla Blue", "Warriors" ... etc). Made with felt-tip pens and colored pencils, they allow me to express myself on a daily basis, to Transcend it and to Transform the excess of emotions that is in me.