Raphaela Vogel

Raphaela Vogel, currently one of the most talked-about young artists within the German-speaking cultural region, received her training at the Städelschule in Frankfurt and at De Ateliers in Amsterdam. In 2018 she exhibited her work at Kunsthalle Basel (Switzerland) and in 2019 at Kunsthaus Bregenz (Austria). Her spatial installations are a hybrid form of sculpture, video, sound and performance. In the dynamic multimedia spaces created by Vogel, she uses the female gaze to counter what is generally viewed as 'male' forms of expression. With this she does not avoid grand gestures or powerful visual statements. Often she places herself at the focal point: standing atop a towering construction crane or at the vortex of a churning mass of water. Hypnotizing images are filmed from drones, from unusual perspectives and with a highly active camera work. The images have been manipulated digitally and provided with a soundtrack of pop songs (that she sings herself), heavy metal music, crickets and the sound of cheering football fans. In her spatial installations the video images and soundscapes are combined with readymades, assemblages and sculptures: landscapes full of material, formal and connotative contrasts that express an oppressive contemporary malaise.