In the work of Isabelle Wenzel (1982, DE), her own body is both subject and object. She becomes a body without rhetoric, ethics or history, transmuted into colour and form. Her most important focus has always been the image of the female body as it is represented in the media. She investigates this theme by constructing and deconstructing her body in ‘performative moments’, using photography to turn her body into sculptural works of art. Lately, Wenzel has also begun making films and installations. Writing about her recent work, she says:

“I created a set of objects in my studio. For several months I shifted them around, changed, multiplied or destroyed them.…

I stretched forward. Felt sensations of heaviness. Was overwhelmed by choice. Got lost. Stumbled. Failed. Started again. I’m a space in the landscape. A geological formation. A botanical shape. An island of isolation. A thinking body. Look at me in slow motion.

I wasted my time.

In repetitive rhythm I took my world, making it new, giving it back almost unchanged, but it has been observed; by me and my camera.”