I am from Mars Print

“I am from Mars” is made with acrylic on paper. My artwork was visually inspired by Pop art artworks. The title suggests that the female in the center is an alien, but her shape is very human-like. Certainly, everyone has heard about the saying: Men are from Mars, women are from Venus. There is the famous book by John Gray from 1992 - with the same title - that is explaining the differences between men and women. While many of us (including me) certainly agree on certain differences, I still feel that a binary analysis of gender is always problematic. Nowadays we have more diverse terms like transgender, non-binary identifying and others. The question arises, why we have to identify at all. “I am from Mars” wants to show an alien-like female figure that is still perceived as a female entity but is from Mars (because in the saying only men are from Mars). She is a very untypical creature, but still interesting, sexy, self-confident. By acknowledging that she is from somewhere else – not even from earth – she is telling us that we have to face something completely alien – although her shape is familiar to us. This notion is what we should keep in mind when meeting new people in general. They seem familiar since we are used to the human shape, but actually they are alien and can’t be put in box of binary definitions.