The exhibition "Once upon a time" presents Margret Eichers latest work. Large format tapestries, using the Jaquard weaving process, are the focal point. Their opulent narrative portrayals, converging the distant past with the present, tell us stories about life in the 21st century.
With her wall hangings Eicher chooses an historical form of imagery. True to medieval and Barock representation of power using Gobelins, Eicher`s tapestries show the "rich and beautiful" of our times. The subjects treat traditionally depicted themes in an iconological and modern rendition: Primarily the displaying of power, struggle, wealth and talent. By means of her compositional portrayals using collages of prominent motifs from the mass media, Eicher puts topical events and echos of historical events into a seemingly antiquated, mythological context.
However, contrary to the historical examples from which the artist borrows the works richly embellished borders and lends computer generated modern images, Eicher examines the main characters of her tapestries with a fine-tooth comb. Not only the figures romping about are stripped naked. By means of ostentatious image manipulation and her ironic touch, Margret Eicher reveals the hierarchical structures of our society.
The small format works in the series "Freche Kopie!", also to be seen in the show, are also based on the theme manipulation of images. Medium and technique are in this case different, the principle of deception remains. The ambiguous fusing of historical images with modern media images is computer-generated and then printed onto canvas. These works gain the perfect impression of Old Masters` works by the application of transparent oil paint, which feigns the optic and haptic of the brush stroke.
Margret Eicher (born 1955 at Viersen) lives and works in Ladenburg. From 1973 to 1979 she studied at the Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. During the last few years in particular Eicher`s work has gained international recognition and been shown at numerous exhibitions at institútions and collections. "Once upon a time" is Margret Eicher`s second individual exhibition at Galerie Caesar & Koba. Art fans in Hamburg will be acquainted with Eicher`s work from the Kunsthaus, where in 2007 two of her large format tapestries were presented in the exhibition "Fish and Ships".
