Ursula Goldau
Und Auch Geschriftetes
This solo show presented works from the years 2001 until 2003, representing a complete new phase of artwork: the ‚stencil images’. Personal changes, such as moving her home to Offenbach and therefore giving up her studio, forced the artist to fall back on techniques, which she had already started to delvelop in 1990, in her collaboration with Russian artists during a group show. Kyrillic script and its graphic use during the Constructivism period became part of the new artwork by using cut out kyrillic letters. Her interest in letters and language continued in her years in France, but only in Offenbach did the artist complete her progress and evolve from word based to text based forms and from cut-out letters to stencils and stencil printing.
The other important aspect in Ursula Goldau's work as an artist are her strong intercultural activities. She has founded the internationally known Schleswig Holsteinische Künstlerhaus Selk and has continued her intercultural work in Offenbach. Part of her artist's mediation work and peace move was her show with stencil images of jewish and muslim texts and combining it with a reading performance. The jewish and muslim visitors at the opening were led unevitably into a subversive dialogue.
Although her focus is on painting and graphic techniques, her solo shows often tend to develop into (multimedia) installations and performances, bound into a process of modification and mutations. This solo show was under constant change as well and particularly the political events (Iraq war) had influence on her performance ritual at the closing party of the show.
Her solo show displayed ‚positiv’ textstripes and in contrast with ‚negativ’ stencils, using poetry and other texts, originating from various languages and cultures (i.e.: Persian, Nachuatl, Chinese, Innuitikut, Russian, Jiddish ...). Juxtaposing them in stochastic manner, these stripes of cloth printed with texts and stencils were all hanging from the ceiling, supplemented with friezes on the walls, that combined stencil printing and graphic techniques, creating an environment of texts. The general impression of this 'jungle of words' was strengthend by her animal drawings in the friezes.