Gallery 2024 – Lilly Pelz

In 2024, I first started working with materials such as wax. I came across the idea of building, or casting antlers, using wax as the base material, then coloring it with oil paint. I used sticks that I found in the forest near my home for the form by dipping them into alginate, then removing the stick or branch and fill in the form with wax. The result looked quite a lot like bones, which I liked and what became the idea of my graduation work in 2025.

„Wühlen“

This work deals with the desire to psychologically penetrate another person. With the feeling that you cannot truly reach someone through language. 

On the one hand, this can relate to another person whom you want to get to know in all their facets because you long for a deep connection, honesty, and openness. Often, however, a person is not ready to open up in this way out of fear of making themselves vulnerable. This can lead to frustration and anger, and the feeling of metaphorically rummaging through the person, trying to find in them the emotions you hope for, becomes stronger and stronger.

On the other hand, this process can also be reversed. When you realize that you yourself do not want to share everything with certain people, do not want to open up, and need to set boundaries that are not respected, it feels as if the other person is forcefully rummaging around inside you. This also leads to anger and creates the desire to close yourself off more and more.

Often, these processes happen unconsciously, and at first you do not fully understand what you are actually feeling. The face in this work is therefore very relaxed, almost as if sleeping or sleepwalking, while the back of the head is using all its strength to search through the person and break through boundaries.