Eva von Platen
Eva von Platen (*1965 in Frankfurt a.M., Germany) creates drawings, collages, photographs, and video works. She has also been active as an author for theater and TV. Currently, Eva von Platen is professor at Nürnberg's art academie ("Akademie der Bildenden Künste Nürnberg").
Eva von Platen's works on paper seem to be an agglomeration of quickly jotted down notes and sketches. Often, the artist integrates found objects such as magazine ads, paper bags, or random flyers into her oeuvre; either reworked as collages, as background for drawings, or as pure objets trouvés. Eva von Platen sets these pieces of entertainment trash into surprising new contexts to expose the hollow banalities we are surrounded with each and every day. Sometimes reminiscent of comics or photo-stories, the artist’s installations of many works on paper always convey a sense of playfulness and (black) humor. Instead of being superficial, though, Eva von Platen's collages and drawings point to questions of philosophy, psychology and art history - without taking themselves all too seriously.
About her videos, Eva von Platen states: "My films are about the absurdities, banalities, and brutalities of everyday life. They show tragic-comic, bizarre situations, in which confused people - often in weird costumes - conduct nonsensical actions. It is the contradictory, the irrational, the absurd, the accidental, the insane, the banal, the subtle, and the meaningless that I am interested in - also because I am surrounded by it always and everywhere (on the street, in administrative offices, on TV, in politics, in architecture, etc). These things constitute an elemental part of our reality and are an important aspect of our life, even though people like to underestimate or ignore it. That is why there have to be more obstinate films, which transform the negligible into the something consequential - and the other way around."
Eva von Platen's works on paper seem to be an agglomeration of quickly jotted down notes and sketches. Often, the artist integrates found objects such as magazine ads, paper bags, or random flyers into her oeuvre; either reworked as collages, as background for drawings, or as pure objets trouvés. Eva von Platen sets these pieces of entertainment trash into surprising new contexts to expose the hollow banalities we are surrounded with each and every day. Sometimes reminiscent of comics or photo-stories, the artist’s installations of many works on paper always convey a sense of playfulness and (black) humor. Instead of being superficial, though, Eva von Platen's collages and drawings point to questions of philosophy, psychology and art history - without taking themselves all too seriously.
About her videos, Eva von Platen states: "My films are about the absurdities, banalities, and brutalities of everyday life. They show tragic-comic, bizarre situations, in which confused people - often in weird costumes - conduct nonsensical actions. It is the contradictory, the irrational, the absurd, the accidental, the insane, the banal, the subtle, and the meaningless that I am interested in - also because I am surrounded by it always and everywhere (on the street, in administrative offices, on TV, in politics, in architecture, etc). These things constitute an elemental part of our reality and are an important aspect of our life, even though people like to underestimate or ignore it. That is why there have to be more obstinate films, which transform the negligible into the something consequential - and the other way around."