Sabine Gruhn

London, England

About the Artist:
Sabine Gruhn employs the human form to investigate the nature of loss and perception of self and other. Gruhn, who at age eight lost her arm after an accident with a tram in former East Berlin, created this series to examine the body and its fragmentation through her prosthesis. She also uses art as the medium to explore issues of universal concern.

"In finding a medium and method to express myself in a way that can communicate to others, I made use of my own potential. In this context art brought me closer to exhausting my capability."

Artist's Statement:
This body of work derives from a project for which I removed my prosthesis from it's designated function to playfully explore its nature as an object.

The prosthesis is a tool, something to wear, something to complete the body and therefore conceal mutilation. In isolation, although individually fitted, it is in fact ready-made. It is a product without origin. Its detachment from the body suggests the possibility of becoming other.

The experience of something being at once strange and familiar is pertinent to my work. The consciousness about this materiality is what we have to confront when losing a body part. The mutilated body as such, works as a reminder of one's own vulnerability and mortality. The completion of a body with an artificial surrogate on the other hand appears to extend one's bodily boundaries and therefore confuses their ditinction.

The prosthesis imitates life, as does photography. The materiality of the replica represents our own.

The photographs relate to the exhibition title 'Exposed' by revealing a sensation of loss and vulnerability. The mutilated body as such works as a reminder of this frailty and consequently of our own mostality.

This work discloses also a part of a personal experience to the viewer. It renders the private public.