Arched Figure 32

In her artistic practice, Grace Schwindt weaves together the media of film, performance, sculpture and drawing. She is particularly interested in the role that bodies – in an interplay with language and objects – play in the creation of history and memory. Furthermore, she tries to make visible how social structures affect the body and psyche of individuals, disciplining, shaping and deforming them. Thus the sculpture “Arched Figure” exhibited at Blickachsen 14 also references the “Arc de Cercle”, which in medical history was described as a circular arch-like hyperextension of the body during a ‘hysterical’ seizure. The bronze feet and legs of the female figure are clearly contoured, while the bent-back upper body increasingly deviates from anatomical accuracy. The torso dissolves into a white, amorphous mass that pours backwards over the floor. Schwindt thus creates the image of a fragile balance between controlled contortion and impending loss of control, in which a tense ambivalence of strength and vulnerability manifests itself.
Grace Schwindt studied at the University of Westminster and the Slade School of Fine Arts in London and has shown her work in solo and group exhibitions worldwide.