Guda Koster is a sculptor and performance artist based in Amsterdam. She creates what she calls “living sculptures”- staged photos of a model, usually herself, whose form is integrated into geometrical shapes, with bright colours or graphic designs that either blend in or contrast strongly with it. “I started out doing textile sculptures”, she explains, “which were – and still are – related to clothing. After a while it seemed only a small step to actually slip into the works and then photograph it”.
In Koster’s art the identity of the human figure is generally hidden, disappearing into or obstructed by the geometrical forms. She explains that she does this to focus attention on other elements of the composition. “If you cannot see the face, the figure’s personality is less obvious”, she points out. “But clearly the works often do have distinct characters, be it male or female, timid or confident.
Clothing is central in Koster’s work. To her, what we choose to cover ourselves with has the practical function of protecting the body, but it also conveys messages. “In our daily life, our social position, function, or identity are visible in what we wear”, Guda observes. In this light, getting dressed can be seen as a form of visual art, a way to express how we see ourselves and want others to see us. She concludes that fashion and clothing are thus “a lot more than just trends that come and go over time”.
Koster’s pieces carry a sense of mystery – sometimes humorous, sometimes more disturbing, but always enigmatic. She likes to play with the visible and the invisible. The effect is that “the boundaries between body and setting become unclear. I guess that is where most of the tension – or mystery – in the work comes from.”
From Collage meets design – cut and paste in graphic design and art by Jorge Chamorro
SHOW UP!
First there was Guda Koster’s personal fascination with textiles, which she mixed with self-evident, almost care-free craftmanship — using all kinds of different materials and fabrics, and then applying these in uncommon places to suggest new ways of communication between artificial, slightly familiar looking, off the grid objects and spaces, but still mostly exposed within an art context.
Soon after, Koster started to use photography as a means of experimentation, staging and manipulating her humanoid objects in specific situations and settings, cheerfully steering possible meanings while at the same time mystifying an unequivocal purpose or message. Using the human body as a prop or puppet without a – recognizable— head, either draped in cloth or enveloped in a geometric device, the quirky sculptures could represent everyman, anonymous but with an open invitation to embody him/her/they/them/it with whatever suits you as an observer best.
Works and installations of Robert Gober and Erwin Wurm might come to mind, but with an incomparable, typical Koster touch of textile art dexterity and an intuitive sense for the exact right angle and the best postures. Experimenting with colours, patterns, layers, shapes, scenes, gestures and rituals thus almost simultaneously leads to the emergence and development of a choreographic, sculptural sensibility. In recent years it was therefore a natural progression for the photographed models to break out of their frames and join the sculptures in their adventures in the public space, in real life and… to perform and interact with audiences that are sometimes well-informed, in theatres or at festivals, but more often oblivious and surprised, such as people on the streets, and in parks or market squares.
These interactive sculptural performances co-created with fellow artist Frans van Tartwijk will surely cause unease and discomfort as they disrupt people’s daily lives. While in everyday life we mostly show up in business-as-usual without giving it much thought, these unexpected interventions uproot our hardly questioned day-to-day routines and rituals. They may feel like a wake-up call to re-evaluate your goals in life; perhaps it is time for — as the title of one of Koster’s photographed sculptures suggests —a change-over? Or maybe you just don’t want to be bothered by moving sculptures and move on, ignoring the glitch in your bubble.
So, whatever moves you as an art-lover, passer-by, spectator or participant, Guda Koster’s photographs, sculptures, performances and intense collaborations always involve a very personal interaction, however fleetingly, with the artist’s world — the natural habitat of her everyman in many different disguises and colourful and playful interpretations.
Stepping into this world of wonder and mild criticism on societal behaviour, especially in the public space, with titles like Incognito, Covergirl, Silent Protest, Out of Step, Superhero, White Elegance, Freeze, In Exile, Wandering Mind, Rumours & Gossip, Lost Angels, her photographs and sculptures may serve as a bountiful source of inspiration to not only show up in life as breathtakingly or anonymously as you want, but to also show up with an active and open mind and look at the world outside from a new perspective each and every day.
Marie Jeanne de Rooij (from the book SHOW UP)