Title : „Petite Rèverie (English „Little Daydream“)
Year of production : 2023
Materials : oil and ash on canvas
Dimensions : 130 x 110 x 3cm
Despription
„Petite Rèverie“ refers to a state between sleeping and waking, in which forces of the unconscious, such as suppressed fears, aggressions or faded memories, come to the fore. For me these kinds of „monsters“ are the unfamiliarities that drive us forward. In my reverie, the group of figures hovering close to the ground consists of two dolls with ghostly faces, children and a Klimtlike mother figure, all of whom appear more monstrous than human in their peculiar poses: a spiral-shaped vortex of age, held in a collective embrace, representing the inevitability of growing up and the pull of change, regardless of whether we are afraid of failing or losing our footing. This is exactly what „evolving“ means to me.
In general, dolls play a key role in many of my works. As socially and culturally designed objects, they incorporate ideas of beauty, cuteness and implications of male and female behaviour. Children all over the world practise their adult selves on dolls — dolls created by people and creating people. This makes them an inspiring motif for reflecting on habits of perception in the medium of painting as a binary act of reproduction and reformulation of traditions and norms. In the age of virtual media in particular, the issue of unconscious psychological conditioning through avatars and profile images is becoming increasingly acute due to the influence of advertising agencies and AI. In „Petite Rèverie“ the experience of a fluid identity and overly complex affiliations is represented by the figures floating freely in a room — with the dolls representing both: the stabilising centre and the driving wheel.
Artist Statement
Inspired by philosophy and driven by inspirations from literature and mythology I work on paintings as entities that store/ mirror/ question self-reflection and cultures of emotionality as an artistic way of re-writing traditions and writing new myths.
My works arise from the immediate impression of colour and its emotional impact, with an openness to all the inner and outer monsters, heroines and losers that challenge me. No painting has a preconceived composition; rather, the figures and spaces develop intuitively from the process. My artistic work is rooted in a view on human beings as creatures who must find a balance between the constraints of cultural and social norms on the one hand and their subjectivity, feelings, and desires on the other. I explore the question of how the tension between society, nature and self-realisation can be addressed through painting as a psychological and emotional reality. What is the relationship between life and death, socialization and freedom, culture and nature, rational and emotional reality?
“… to believe that imagination can create worlds, that magic exists — where fairy tales, hybrid creatures and myths meet the innermost being of man. Maria Wirth’s paintings take us to precisely this place: a space between reality and imagination, between memory and dream. Her paintings are powerful, multi-layered — and at the same time deeply personal.
Maria Wirth creates pictorial spaces that take us into the depths of human experience. Her works touch on fundamental themes such as longing, fear, love, violence, desire, life and death – not explanatory, but tangible. With poetic imagery and sensitive composition, she opens up inner landscapes in which figures lose themselves or find themselves. Scenes that combine dream and reality – and make something visible that often remains hidden.”
[from the exhibition text of “Nimmerland”, 2025 Galerie Grolman Berlin]