The reverse side also has a reverse side.
— Japanese Proverb
An oral narrative has a slow metabolism; it patiently unfolds over decades, allowing for a sharpening of some details and the muting of others. Descriptive elements emerge in glorious color, forms become monstrous or beautiful, there is a cacophony of sounds rich and ragged, images appear and disappear like reflections on flowing water, and the story becomes flesh, pliant yet tangible.
The essence of my art has its roots in the unrestrained possibilities of oral narrative. I flesh out my story in a multiplicity of media including painting, sculpture, photography, fashion design, text, audio and video. Presented in an installation format, my art is the lens through which I see the world and through which I communicate my unfettered vision.
A primary influence on my art is the Surrealist movement that fascinated me as a child and ignited my imagination. Tear sheets from magazines and books with prints of Salvador Dali, Giorgio De Chirico, and Paul Delvaux were pasted around my mother's studio like family photographs. Later, living in Rome in the 1970s, I discovered Federico Fellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Tadeusz Kantor, and the theater of the absurd. These forms of expression became my primary artistic language.
My current interest lies in the duality of common objects—objects that are tangible and objects that live in our memories. Throughout history, functional accessories reflected social status and a sense of well-being and security. My parents survived the concentration camps, their families were murdered and their upper middle class status and possessions vanished. In my mother's meticulous descriptions, beautiful objects mingled with the horrors of war. Those were the first footprints of my childhood memories. While Hitler's voice was blasting on the radio, my grandparents were renovating their summerhouse, the tailor was busy embellishing the silk dresses for my mother and her little sister, and the men were skiing in the mountains with their warm ski boots. These memories are the catalyst for my recent installation, My Inner Sole.
My Inner Sole is a multimedia production formed around a collection of shoes amassed from friends and family. Each pair carries the owner’s odor and footprints, shaped by their sweat into personal molds. This essence of individuality is extended by the skeletal figures wearing the shoes and by the clothing and accessories that I created for each figure. These strong individuals are part of a constantly evolving environment, a multimedia atmosphere where luxury and death parade hand in hand in the same way as they marched in my mother's memories. Her memories became mine to bear and pass on—sublime, invisible but so very tangible.
Zuzka Kurtz, 2009
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