DISPARATE, INSPIRED BY GOYA
Imagine this: the head sometimes only covers the skull.
“In the mass-production of the commercial marketplace, the further manipulation of media that are by their very nature already manipulative has resulted in a blandness and a violence that can only increase the misery of modern man.” – George Steiner
At this moment, there are no more rules to break – everything is already broken. Traditions and established rules were destroyed by punk, challenged by deconstruction, and no one has ever thought about rebuilding them. The great revolution has burst, and what comes next? Re-elected governments, a surge in property supported by guys going out with Adam Ant’s war paint, running around like Bow Wow Wow in the country? – Dogs that bark don’t bite.
Do girls really just want to have fun, like Madonna and Cindy Lauper showed them 20 years ago? Do we really live in a shameless, boundless world of laissez-faire? A world where one must always respond passively and non-reactively – just buy?
The media have become the religion of the new century. Its editors, stylists, designers, and programmers are its priests. With the presence of these media landscapes and their messages, we are force-fed. Let’s assume we are conditioned to compare ourselves to the media-generated image of "man" or "woman." And further assume that those who generate these images always reduce their projections of "man" and "woman" to the lowest common denominator of the previous ones: this means we will eventually instinctively respond to violence with counter-violence.
The goal of Tina Winkhaus' works, whether realistic or abstract, is to influence the images created by the media as strongly as possible. In response to the power of the media, she offers her personal interpretation of "tribalism," reminding us of the human form and the original human emotions. "Tribalism" can be seen as "Modern Romance" – this is not contradictory, even though it may initially seem so. This expresses one of the most urgent tasks: the idea of rediscovering personal providence. Not to let ourselves be controlled forever by external influences.
Her approach to romance differs from many other artists: unlike them, she avoids copying style. She judges the essence of what has been made and why. She takes from Goya a sense of tragedy, a sense of humanism, and a rejection of traditional rules and values. And once you've seen it, you can make your own interpretation. You gain control over an uncontrollable act for a change. Do something! Be bold! Keep going! – It’s certainly better than listening to Duran Duran over and over.
For Tina Winkhaus, Goya is like climbing a jagged cliff – dark, morbid, and full of dangerous surprises – and once you’re at the top, you find a bench from which you can relax and look down at the state of the land for a while. No pastiche. No nostalgia. It’s a strengthening language that wants to say: “Another period of discovery in photography is over – let’s take another look at what we’ve actually done before we take the next step. Isn’t the world still sad, but beautiful?”
Text: Eugen Taran, Translation: Simone Taran
