© 2024 Cristina Rüesch
Statement
In my paintings, sculptural installations, performances, and texts, I combine elements from everyday life, pop culture, and (art) historical references. Central to my work is the concept of the terrestrial and the ongoing human attempt to escape groundedness, or “down-to-earthness.” Over the years, the idea of in-between worlds has crystallized for me—a concept that is significant both for my socio-political thinking and my personal biography: the world between the local and the global, the world of the not-yet-digested, the world of tunnels in the mountains, and the ambiguous.
I often work essayistically with a theoretical foundation. Recurring figures (e.g., the knight) and forms (e.g., the circle) play a central role, functioning as leitmotifs in my narratives and addressing the need to explore personal observations, fears, and hopes, which in turn are embedded in a broader political and cultural context. In this framework, I understand “figuring” also as “figuring out”: that is, the process of discovering, comprehending, and striving to understand.