Johanna Tiedtke
Born 1981 in Eckernförde, Germany
Lives and works in New York
EDUCATION
2016 MFA, Hochschule für bildende Künste (HfbK), Hamburg
2016 MFA, Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, Bard College, NY
2012 Diploma, Hochschule für bildende Künste (HfbK), Hamburg
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2015
Bearing. Traces of [Dis]location. (with Bernd Klug), Austrian Cultural Forum, NYC
Hanna Burow. Overbeck-Gesellschaft, Kunstverein Lübeck
Bearing. (with Bernd Klug), Galerie Freihausgasse Stadt Villach (AT)
2014
Von anderen Welten. Galerie der Stadt Remscheid
2013
Der Morgen stirbt nie. (with Tammo Winkler), Künstlerverein Malkasten, Düsseldorf
2012
Ein Stück Zeit. (with Tammo Winkler), Fleetstreet Theater, Hamburg
Von neuerwachten Welten. Diploma Exhibition, Hochschule für bildende Künste (HfbK), Hamburg
2011
Vom Ende der Welt. (with Tammo Winkler), Westwerk, Hamburg
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2017
25 EFA. Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, NYC
2016
Salon der Gegenwart. Hamburg
Untwining Noise, To See. Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, NYC
Absolventenausstellung. Hochschule für bildende Künste (HfbK), Hamburg
2015
Von neuerwachten Welten. Jahresgaben, Overbeck-Gesellschaft, Kunstverein Lübeck
Bard College MFA Thesis Exhibition. UBS Gallery, Red Hook, NY
2014
On Painting. Frappant, Hamburg
Panel Discussion & Various Formats Are Appropriate. Silvershed, NYC
We Are Dude Core. This Red Door, Kunsthalle Galapagos, Brooklyn, NY
2013
Treizeshow. Treize Gallery, Paris (FR)
Under The Influence. Wiensowski & Harbord, Berlin
Visionen. Atmosphären der Veränderung. Marta Herford
Hamburger Bahnhof. Power Galerie, Hamburg
2012
Last Edition. Galerie Oel-Früh, Hamburg
2011
BLACKY Blocked Radiants Sunbathed. (with DAS INSTITUT, UNITED BROTHERS, Nuh Duong and HfbK Hamburg), Halle für Kunst, Lüneburg
A-M-S-D-C-B-W-S-S. (with Ei Arakawa, Yuki Kimura, Jutta Koether and HfbK Hamburg), DAAD-Galerie, Berlin
New Classics. Elektrohaus, Hamburg
What the Fox. Goldsmiths College, London (GB)
2010
Von den Dingen und zurück. Sammlung Lenikus, Vienna (AT)
Index 10. Kunsthaus Hamburg
Nur die Kunst ist künstlich, alles andere ist Theater. Galerie Oel-Früh, Hamburg
R-Klasse. Golden Pudel Club, Hamburg
The Peatles. Fehrbelliner Straße 34, Berlin
Satellites. Freies Museum, Berlin
2009
Index 09. Kunsthaus Hamburg
Hunger. LeRoy Neiman Gallery, Columbia University, NYC
Saunabarstudio, Schau und Feier. Stadtbad Wedding, Berlin
Rock Bottom Weekend. Kunsthaus KuLe, Berlin
Baahlsaahm #1 Knochen. Berlin
Builder Vor Boatin. Silvershed, NYC
2008
Index 08. Kunsthaus Hamburg
5. Runde. Infernoesque, Berlin
Wenn nicht für Gott, dann für wen? Villa Daniel Richter, Hamburg
Hamburg Goonies. Wir nennen es Hamburg, Kampnagel, Hamburg
2007
Shining. Galerie Total Artspace, Berlin
Gestern, Heute, Übermorgen. Westwerk, Hamburg
Rio. Artnews Project, Berlin
2006
Farewell Berlin. Galerie Brun, Düsseldorf
Außer Haus. Uferstr. 6, Berlin
The Courtesy of Thorsten Eyer. Ballhaus Ost, Berlin
AWARDS AND SCHOLARSHIPS
2016 – 2018 Studio Program, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, NYC
2016 Travel Award, Kulturstiftung Schleswig-Holstein
Artist in Residence (with Bernd Klug), Institute For Electronic Arts,
Alfred University, NY
2013 – 2015 MFA scholarship and fellowship, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
2013 One-year graduate scholarship, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
MFA one-year scholarship, Karl H. Ditze Stiftung, Hamburg
2012 Fleetstreet Residency (with Tammo Winkler), Fleetstreet Theater, Hamburg
2012 Project Grant, Rudolf Augstein Stiftung, Hamburg
2011 Project Grant, Karl H. Ditze Stiftung, Hamburg
PUBLICATIONS
2016
salondergegenwart 2016. Exhibition catalog, edited by Christian Holle, published by Gudberg Nerger, Hamburg
HFBK Jahrbuch 2015 / 16 Band 1. Edited by Martin Köttering, published by
Hochschule für bildende Künste, Hamburg
Notes: On Administration. Edited by Kylie Gilchrist / Megan Stockton, published by Publication Studio, Portland, OR
Hanna Burow. Monograph, edited by Oliver Zybok, published by Revolver, Berlin
Lerchenfeld HfbK Nr. 32. Edited by Martin Köttering, published by Materialverlag, Hamburg
2015
Bard College MFA Thesis Exhibition. Exhibition catalog, edited by Arthur Gibbons, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
2013
Visionen. Exhibition catalog, edited by Marta Herford, published by Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern
2012
Absolventen 2011 / 12. Exhibition catalog, edited by Martin Köttering, published by Materialverlag, Hamburg
Johanna Tiedtke. Von neuerwachten Welten. Hamburg
2011
Yabberwocky / Von den Dingen und zurück. Exhibition catalog, Materialverlag, Hamburg
30 Jahre Heitland Foundation. Edited by Volker Heitland, published by Heitland Foundation, Celle
2010
Index 10. Exhibition catalog, edited by Elena Winkel, Hamburg
2009 Index 09. Exhibition catalog, edited by Elena Winkel, Hamburg
2008 Index 08. Exhibition catalog, edited by Elena Winkel, Hamburg
How can I question the role of painting in a digital age?
I combine different planes of perception by layering psychological, historical, and digital spaces in order to transform time and architectural space.
My work dissolves hierarchies among technique and medium within painting and digital media. Every work wants to close a gap of memory which can’t be closed. Through the presentation of absence in image and memory, my work addresses the vulnerability of both; an image and our perception of images in a digital time.
One layer is biographical and uses embroideries my great-aunt made while suffering from dementia. Each of her embroideries was made at a different stage of memory loss; the patterns she created became more and more disorganized until they eventually fell apart. Her embroideries embody a transmission failure that gave rise to a new creativity: she broke through the pattern, but somehow stayed within her own logic. With the example of my great-aunt’s disease I attempt to describe something social and elaborate my interest in cross generational legacies of traumas, of the unspoken, and approach the question of how my own generation has coped with them.
Other layers are contemporary or historical references and cite ambivalent spaces like camouflage, fence grids, and depictions of digital landscapes from video games like Minecraft, as well as various gardens: the one in Northern Germany where I grew up during the cold war; The Garden of Paradise by an unknown German painter of the early 15th century; and Pompeiian and late Roman garden frescos.
The work starts with digital files of these layers: I scan the embroideries, edit them digitally, and partially transform the cross stitches into pixels. In other cases I digitally collage multiple layers of files, including the scans of the embroideries. The files are printed onto a wooden surface. The print is transparent so as to allow the grain of the wood to shine through, providing another layer, a counter image. I paint on the print, adding several more layers described above, creating a dialogue between painting and print, between manual created marks and digital ones, and the painters hand reacting to the industrial created UV-prints. In addition I often install the paintings in dialog with external other materials and media such as glass and projections. Like in the formation of the embroideries themselves, there are transmission failures in each step, creating a space of abstraction.
All layers are applied with varying fragmentations and opacities and made only partially visible. The painting process is INTENTIONALLY slow and laborious, mirroring the stitching process itself. The atmosphere of the paintings creates an uncertain state. A hunt of what was and will be. A push and pull of perception. A review. A drone perspective on human existence in a digital time.
You must read slowly, like a somewhat difficult text, to allow time for it to give up its visual secrets in increments. It insists that you stay, pause, wait; see, and then see more. This demand is for a form of attention, as if you were being asked to enter a chamber denuded of distraction, where the eye’s seeing and the mindheart’s listening conjoin. As if the work were asking us to see the silence.
(Ann Lauterbach Johanna Tiedtke’s Wall Pieces: Rescuing Silence, 2015)
