Petra Gerschner
Petra Gerschner is among those artists who take a politically activist approach, investigating the medium photography for its content-related declamatory power in the field of tension between ostensible objectivity and inalienable subjectivity. In her work the artist explores prevailing identity constructions and the standardization of gender roles. For Psychic Realities Gerschner has made use of an image from her many-layered archive, which despite the analog superimposition bears the constructedness of a digital manipulation. Here the protagonist is shown at the moment of her jump into the unknown. The first association is of a suicidal plunge into the depths, and yet a second look reveals a smiling cherry-red mouth, while arms that are spread out to take flight seemingly seek to suspend the law of gravity and the material limitations of the body. The superimposition of the vertical bars in the background correlating with the strip of light might represent the neuronal interactions accompanying the tense moment, putting mental consciousness at the center of attention. How can the neurobiological correlates of human beings in psychically extreme situations be treated in the visual arts? Gerschner’s photo stimulates reflection on the situation of human beings and their innermost psychic membrane, which rarely comes to the surface and often only sees the light of day in dialog with a therapist or a trusted confidant.
