Izidora I LETHE

Izidora I LETHE's new works are based on the human body as a repository of knowledge. Similar to the gradual construction of LETHE's performances and installations, the artist developed monotypes by using line etching, aquatint and drypoint etching. The individual works from the series are connected by nine common dots, so that the three sheets could be "read" when placed on top of each other. Strokes and lines move around these fixed points and decentralize them at the same time; they are in motion – like bodies. The lines of movement – or "Lines Of Flight" – form a branching course of motion that is brought out in a fascinating way by the technique of line etching.

Using an air-brush process developed specifically for this series and resulting in monotypes, LETHE has sprinkled orange color on each printing plate. Hanging the works side by side, one can follow the dynamic line of "orange" from the first to the last work, the softness of this line being in tension with the strictness of the black strokes and lines. LETHE is interested in the intense color orange not only as an immediate sensual experience. Historically, orange has had no proper name in Europe until the 16th century, but was simply called "red-yellow" – a common term among printers to this day. LETHE is interested in this linguistic gap as a starting point to thematize "in-between spaces". In contrast to both colored works, the third, produced in aquatint process, with its black materiality and again nine bright orange omissions, presents a somewhat different accentuation, which can be understood much more in terms of the necessary opening – as opposed to omission – of "Spaces".

Izidora I LETHE graduated with an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and a BFA from the Zurich University of the Arts. LETHE currently holds the BINZ39 Zurich Studio Fellowship (2022-2024) and is pursuing the PhD in Art Practice at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. LETHEs work has recently been shown at Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich (2021), Leslie-Lohman Museum, New York City (2021-2022), and the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco (2019-2020).

The production of these works was made possible by the Art Collection Department of the Canton of Zurich.