This chapter shows Esslinger’s works that deal with self-imageand identity. In the series “Artist at Work”, “Ich will nicht zur Arbeit gehen, weil ich es bevorzuge zu schlafen” (“I don’t want to go to work, because I prefer to sleep”), “Mein drittes Auge” (“My Third Eye”), and “SHE (She Has Enemies)”, not only the role of the artist is called into question, but also production conditions in general. 

Localization

This collection focuses on urban environments and landscapes.The series “Standortfaktor” (“Location Factor”), “Stahlstadtkinder” (“Children of the Steel City”), “Donauschwimmen” (“Swimming in the Danube”), “Atlantikschwimmen” (“Swimming in the Atlantic”), “Tauchgang” (“Diving”), “Cluburlaub” (“Club Holiday”),“Landstraße” (“Land Street”), “Monokultur” (“Monoculture”) and “Eisheilige” (“Ice Saints”) all deal with real facts and settings like gravity or the environment. The element of water in all its different formations—as ocean, river, tap water or reservoir, as ice landscape or transportroute—is treated, as well as human vulnerability in the face of nature. 

Setting 

The series “Artista Gringa Mix”, “Western Bubble”, “Business As Usual”, and “Under Cover” criticize stereotype patterns in established and conventional notions. Clichés are treated: the “lazy” southerner, the American “cowboy”, the “industrious” central European, etc. However, this corresponds specifically to the forms of colonial attributions that are consciously maintained up to the present and which are called into question in the works in this collection.


Interchange

“Alliance” accordingly takes a significant position in the artist’s work. To what extent is it still possible to maintain authentic relationships in the western working world and to consciously make use of one’s own lifetime? These questions are analyzed in the series “Autonomie” (“Autonomy”), “Too Lazy to Exhibit”, and “Biopolitischer Widerstand” (“Biopolitical Resistance”). 

Alliance

cut outs/shipping boxes
Attributions of a different kind determine the “Hand Luggage Productions”. Like some of the artist’s paintings, the Cut Outs follow the traces of the post-colonial global society. The cardboard box is the starting material for the Cut Outs and is an important element in contemporary art production at the same time. However, it is also a waste product with no monetary value. Working with the boxes results in a mobile art work that can be easily transported. The multiplicity of the figures and the different possibilities of hanging form an open system.

Astrid Esslinger