Lara Minerva is a collagist with a bi-national German-Greek background. Her work is evocative, exploring sexuality, femininity and internal conflict. Her collages resonate aesthetically of course, but also emotionally through careful displays of vulnerability. They ask viewers to seek nature in humanity, flora sprouting up through naked women and fauna dwelling in female bodies. They call out slut-shaming by creating beautifully ornate (but powerful) depictions of nudity and sexuality. They offer a glimpse into emotional turmoil, presenting alluring exteriors that seep discontent, hunger, uncertainty. But that's enough from us - why not hear it from the artist herself? We asked Lara to share some of her work and her experiences with us, which you can find below. If you're still wanting afterward, you can find more at her website or on Facebook and Instagram.
Welt-Entrücken
"Welt-Entrücken" is an expression I found in Richard Wagners Tristan and Isolde. I understand it as a state of being where you are not tied to the world anymore and find yourself in transcendence. It is one of the collages where I used vintage porn. I often use vintage porn photos and make them look very romantic in my collages."
The Taste of Silence
"Text and Image to express my first and only synesthetic experience."
Sweet and Enchanting
"A collage so sweet and delicate. Who would have thought that I used porn for it?"
Freiheitssucht
"How can I best translate this title… freedomaddiction? Oh, how I love contradictions."
A Delicate Escape
"Another collage about the desire to be somewhere else, to be free."
Sweet Surrender
"A minimal collage which reminds me of an hour glass."
Artist Statement
"I studied psychology and am therefore often influenced by psychological questions. I like to add into my collages a few of my own words or short quotes from my favorite operas. I am particularly inspired by Wagner and Strauss and if you look carefully you will sometimes find direct references. Their music and stories strongly resonate with me and often translate into an urge to create art. Art is something I do when I feel this inner urge to do so, when my soul is burning and in need to transform a feeling, a conflict, or even a thought into something expressive, something more tangible.
Subjects of my collages are often conflicts or opposites which cause psychological tension. A recurring topic in my work is the concept of desire. Desire in general, how it feels like and what it does with us when we crave something or someone. But also conflicts like: What are we craving more, freedom or love? Soothing numbness or the intensity of feeling alive? Power or innocence? I hope that my collages can evoke a conflict - in the viewer as well as in me - while solving or soothing this conflict at the same time.
When I think about my working progress I find parallels to dreaming and dream interpretation. That is because, while making Collages I am dreaming, which means creating and experiencing on a very emotional level and at the same time I am interpreting what it is that I am perceiving and why."
"I studied psychology and am therefore often influenced by psychological questions. I like to add into my collages a few of my own words or short quotes from my favorite operas. I am particularly inspired by Wagner and Strauss and if you look carefully you will sometimes find direct references. Their music and stories strongly resonate with me and often translate into an urge to create art. Art is something I do when I feel this inner urge to do so, when my soul is burning and in need to transform a feeling, a conflict, or even a thought into something expressive, something more tangible.
Subjects of my collages are often conflicts or opposites which cause psychological tension. A recurring topic in my work is the concept of desire. Desire in general, how it feels like and what it does with us when we crave something or someone. But also conflicts like: What are we craving more, freedom or love? Soothing numbness or the intensity of feeling alive? Power or innocence? I hope that my collages can evoke a conflict - in the viewer as well as in me - while solving or soothing this conflict at the same time.
When I think about my working progress I find parallels to dreaming and dream interpretation. That is because, while making Collages I am dreaming, which means creating and experiencing on a very emotional level and at the same time I am interpreting what it is that I am perceiving and why."
