Alexandra Bircken refers to cultural attributes of masculinity and femininity, which she subjects to critical deconstruction. She transforms a motorcyclist's outfit into a hunting trophy and hangs car gearshift levers from gold-painted wooden sub-paintings. The sumptuous design of cars and motorbikes is a fetish of the affluent, a sign of their owners' high status. The artist seems to polemicise with such a system of values and radically blurs the function of design gadgets. The found, readymade objects also express her distrust of traditional ways of creating icon paintings or sculptures on a pedestal, which are known in art history.

 

Aleksandra Bircken

Alexandra Bircken is a German artist, studied Fashion Design at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London (1995), after which she started her own fashion business. From 2000 to 2008 she taught at her alma mater. Bircken creates assemblages, combining found objects with natural materials, and pays attention to the textures and tactile qualities of materials. She uses found objects such as branches, stones, wool, hair and tights. Although she uses damaged objects in her works, they have individual qualities. They refer to their micro-history recorded in the matter, such as leather or a worn outfit. But the works are never mass castings from a mould, like many classical sculptures in the history of art. She has held artist residencies in Cologne (2004-2088), London (2011) and Harare (2014). In 2016, she was awarded the Stiftung Kunstfonds Award. She has been exhibiting since 2008, and in 2019 her work was included in the Group exhibition of the 58th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale.