ELENA GLUTH - ARTIST STATEMENT

born in 1979
lives and works in Berlin
concentrates on drawing


My drawing activity is based on my interest in language systems: the language of the line, of the body, verbal/written languages and various kinds of notation. At different periods of my life, I also engaged with dance, music, and linguistics. This experience is internalized in my work process through the combination of elements from these different modalities in a single expressive act of drawing. Visual perception and imagery are united with corporeality, the physical act of movement, and the cognitive-linguistic dimension.

One of the topics of my linguistic research focused on the phenomenon of code-switching - the alternation of languages or codes within a single discourse. In a certain sense, this principle also describes my artistic method: each group of drawings is characterized by a particular kind of "switching" between the descriptive activity of writing and the kinetic impulse of movement or dance.

Some groups of work are more shaped by the notion of writing - a gestural inscription of phenomena, emotions or spatial encounters. In these, the line acts like a sign or letter, tracing and naming what emerges through attention. In this mode, drawing becomes a near-linguistic act: the line writes, outlines, asserts.

Other works, however, are more overtly rooted in musical and choreographic experience. The rhythmic and temporal structures of music - pulse, repetition, syncopation, pause - act as a driving force. I often approach the page as a site of performance, where lines behave like sound traces, like notations of melodies or - on a more general scale - of movement, vibration, physical presence.

The tension between repetitiveness and variability establishes a framework for my working process. The exploration of their interplay evokes the experience of navigating between control and spontaneity - restraint and overflow - producing patterns of emergence that recall musical phrasing or motific development.

Contrast, tension, and balance are key principles in my practice. The interplay between impulsive, emotional gesture and the structured, analytical response produces a dynamic visual syntax. The drawing process becomes a choreography of thought and sensation - a composition where movement and sound, image and language all seek alignment. This continuous negotiation of balance is something I associate not only with bodies or objects, but with ideas and phenomena searching for orientation within their environment. Thus, I see my drawings as a sustained attempt at localization - spatially, semantically, sonically.

DRAWING SERIES - HORIZON 01

in front of me - a landscape
details fall away
the essence - the horizon

cut the surface by a single line
the drawing done

contemplate
and draw a line again
another one

stare far way
the horizon absorbs the whole of my attention

perceive some fragments underneath
fields?
bushes?
trees?
the pen starts gliding
it's drawing something
going on
it's hurrying
back
to touch the horizontal line again

my eyes are fixed on the horizon, it is magnetic
the rest is ephemeral - objects, structures, spaces - either fog or flashes
however
they do exist
the flighty pen flies over the surface
quickly
it describes, rewrites and outlines
details - documented
reduced
to the reminiscence
the imagery
mirage

sometimes I do not draw this line
I do not have to
it is inside me
desert
sea
horizon

DRAWING SERIES - SCRIPT ROWS / TRANSCRIPTIONS / UTTERANCES

I only cover several pages with signs from top to bottom when I'm trying to "warm up." Rarely do I produce anything resembling large blocks of continuous text. And if I do, it's usually just a first attempt-a way of tuning in to the present moment, to my inner state, and to the mood of my hand.

Not every drawing becomes a "transcription" or a "script." That transformation happens only when I feel a strong, immediate urge to say something, to tell or describe. In such moments, my hand begins to form signs that resemble letters.

Of course, I don't write out the words. When the need to express arises, it comes with haste. My thoughts flow like a stream-there's no time to shape every letter. I abbreviate letters, compress words, even entire phrases or sentences.

Still, even as the current carries me, I break things apart into fragments. These interruptions seem essential to me. I think I like punctuation. Sometimes I even wonder what I've truly transcribed-the meanings themselves, or the punctuation: those marks that separate or connect ideas.

There is also a completely different kind of script I create. I call these series of drawings "script rows." In truth, I'm drawn to wide landscapes, expansive spaces where the signs can breathe-where they can exist with room around them. Yet sometimes, a shape or figure becomes the focus. So much so that the signs begin to swell. They suddenly take over. The figurative form emerges: the sign becomes a character, claiming the entire space for itself.

DRAWING SERIES - FLOW

streaming lines

DRAWING SERIES - NeuesMemo

taking notes

2015 I discovered an app for taking notes in my phone.
Since then I have been drawing on the mobile phone screen while I am thinking.

What do these drawings reveal? The matters that I think of? Are these the thoughts that take shape in the drawings? The emotions? Or are these the various ways to sort and arrange thoughts that become visible?

While drawing, I do not think about these questions. I deal with one topic or with many at once, with everyday things or with global matters, think back and forth, or the thoughts flow semi formulated somewhere in the background. I draw, thenI flap the phone, stand up, leave the bus and hurry on.

Reviewing the pictures later, I can no longer remember what subject occupied me during I was working on some particular drawing; neither I can recollect the context of what was happening nor my mood or feelings. In a certain way, these drawings occur to me always new and surprising. In the end, I can only deal with the formal aspects of the signs or enjoy the aesthetic experience.

The memory of what had happened, had been thought and felt however has vanished. I see what all see: a collection of lines, forms and structures. Literally, I overwrote the issues that concerned me with these records. My phone called each note by default "NeuesMemo" and set the date of record in the file name.

Hundreds of digital memories printed on transparencies are piled up on top of each other.
The drawing series "NeuesMemo" is dedicated to overwriting (of the memory).

DRAWING SERIES - ALPHA

This series of works displays net-like structures inspired by piles of tree branches, woven patterns, maps and air views of landscapes.
The focus is on the combination of the technical and organic linear patterns, on contrast, and on the inter-play of the positive and negative spaces.
The relationship between the natural and artificial structures and processes is examined by experimenting with variability and repetitiveness, macro and micro scale, chaos and order, randomness and precise elaboration.

POSITIVE - NEGATIVE
The essential and constitutive element for all works of this series is the relation of the positive and negative spaces. It defines the structure of each drawing as well as the structure of each smaller segment within the drawings.
The priority of the positive or the negative is the principal question that emerges during the composition development. The artist reflects upon it by the means of contrast, i.e. changing the mental state from impulsiveness to self-control which results into the permanent tension between random action and reflected elaboration of the composition.
The positive and negative areas co-define each other, the dominating direction of the influence – from positive to negative or from negative to positive – alters from drawing to drawing as well as within the inner structure of single drawings.

LINE - SPACE
The play with the contrast of the positive and negative is combined with the opposition of the linearity and space. The process of drawing reminds of sculpturing a form: the lines arranged into sequences seem to lose their linear character and become an area. These areas physically shape the positive space and sculpture it to lines. In the reverse composition development, the vast area of the white canvas, the positive, is mentally transformed to an imagined line flowing through the landscape and cutting it into numerous islands which are to be physically shaped by the black materialized lines.

MATERIAL
The material properties of the black permanent marker are reduced to its single and essential characteristic: permanency as a metaphor of steady contrast. The method of contrasting affects each action and process: the positive is contrasted to the negative, chaos to order, randomness to elaboration, repetitiveness to variability, macro scale to micro scale, the line is contrasted to the area.

LINEAR PATTERN
The common feature of the line throughout this series is its fragmentation and resolution into more or less short strokes.
The degree of format-filling varies, though tending to the coverage of the entire canvas. By filling out mostly the whole space, the linear grid facilitates the impression of flatness. However, the variation of the line density and thickness creates a feeling of volume and transforms the flat surface into a spacial pattern.
The changing length and direction of the strokes create various rhythmic and dynamic patterns conveying a subtle feeling of movement.
Both the three-dimensional and dynamic effects are more or less slight, appearing and disappearing depending on the viewing distance and the concentration of the glance. United by the form, length, direction, thickness and extent of density, the lines build up numerous more or less homogeneous bundles and islands, the homogeneity of the sequences being of different nature: from chaotic through strict to lyrical and decorative.

MACRO – MICRO SCALE
In the experiment with the scale, the distance to the canvas is varied; the spot-devoted acts of drawing are followed by the reflected contemplation and landscape development from a distance. This contrasting leads to the exaggeration effects resulting in macro or micro scaled patterns, inviting the viewer to explore his/her own perception by varying the distance to the canvas.

CROSS REFERENCING
Just like lines condense to sequences within one canvas, the drawings complement each other, form more or less coherent groups. Though contrasting, the separate groups of drawings are at the same time extensions of each other and form a coherent system with its elements cross-referencing one another.