“Dream On” is a playful journey through art history, where pink elephants wander into classical masterpieces. Inspired by Austria’s surreal pandemic rule of using a baby elephant as a distance measure, the series reimagines old masterworks through a lens of whimsy and hope. For artist Marlies Plank, these elephants became symbols of comfort and imagination in uncertain times. Dream On bridges past and present, inviting us to embrace fantasy, find lightness in the absurd, and keep dreaming—no matter what the world brings.

Dream On -The Early Years

A while ago I started out a project which is still in progress called Soapbubble Studies. For me they are a metaphor for the impermanence and fragility of life -no two are identical, but all come from one source. So far the series have been taking place in the moroccan desert, in various places in Austria and Italy.

Soap Bubble Studies

Paradise (is female ?)

Homage to a bumshaped fruit wearing lingerie.

Peachbums

The Originals

Dream on

Lockdown Soap Bubbles Studies is a collection of works born out of the 2020 pandemic, and part of the wider Soap Bubbles Studies photography series which depicts soap bubbles floating in front of uninhabited natural landscapes. In place of the natural settings characteristics of the original images, Plank uses a photography backdrop of kitsch landscapes set up in her own backyard. Started as a direct response to the travel restrictions imposed by Covid-19, the backdrop element of Lockdown offers a humorous twist on the impersonal photos of palm trees and idyllic beaches, for instance prevalent as floor-to-ceiling wallpaper in the 70s and 80s.