MERCEDES MÜHLEISEN (NO)
Mercedes' works, be it sculpture, installation, video or performance, are often presented in three-dimensional tableaus, or stage sets. A pivotal point for her interest is the construction and creation of situations where the absurd has it's own insisting logics. Often are videos or sculptures incorporated in large scale installations, where everything within a constructed room is part of the same whole. The room functions as a cocoon with it's own blatant rules and premise that confines the spectator.
Self-written texts are also a central point in her works, especially in video and performance works. The texts often have a gloomy backdrop where desperation, anxiety and darkness are significant constituents. Their underlaying eeriness functions as a sort of upchuck of that which one desires to suppress, but inexorably seeps towards surface. The figures which are presented in her works, often assume an alienated position towards the environment they find them selves in. Mercedes likes to brainwash herself into thinking that anything and all things are possible. This might suggest a person tunneling into her own psyche, also-one might argue-this represents a delusion. So, in a sense, her works revolves around the impossible striving of the imagination, and the underlying melancholy of this unfulfilled striving and desire.
"Stilleben I" (Endlösung), Installation with sound, Øyvind Aspen og Mercedes Mühleisen, 2011
"Oppkom", videoinstallation, Mercedes Mühleisen, 2011
"Oppkom", video installation (Still), Mercedes Mühleisen, 2011
"Finsterlinge", video installation, 2009