Lisa Seebach

The publication is appearing on the occasion of the awarding of the 2017 New York Stipend by the Ministry for Science and Culture of the State of Lower Saxony and the Niedersächsische Sparkassenstiftung to Lisa Seebach. The artist works primarily with the materials of steel and ceramics, out of which she creates fragile, grid-shaped sculptures that she installs at each respective exhibition space in an extremely sensitive manner. This creates stagings which, reminiscent of drawings consisting of lines and surfaces, impact upon the surrounding space even as they depict their own spaces. Just as a picture puzzle allows various possible interpretations, so do there arise notions of absent as well as actually-present bodies in the space. In 1911, Franz Kafka noted in his diary that a puzzle picture often contains a hidden message that can only be discovered by someone who knows about it. Through her particular form of spatial arrangement, Lisa Seebach develops an enigmatic situation consisting of ambiguous and unstable relationships. She thereby sharpens our awareness of the fact that what is essential is not always clearly visible.