This small icon is a work that has been created over the years by collecting one found object after another. A work that is close to my heart.

Icon “sweet love”, size approx. 17 x 26 cm, incl. framing 60 x 80 cm

The icon was part of my special exhibition “Romanticism 2.0” at the Bad Pyrmont Castle Museum 2023

Material – found objects:
Painted waste wood.
A flattened cartridge case as a crown.
A stamped “Sistine Madonna” stamp.
A frame from a birth control pill wrapper filled with chocolate paper.
A crushed Astra Rotlicht brand crown cap.
Remains of a child’s braid.
Labeled paper.

Madonna between adoration and desire.
Between power and dependence.
Between kitsch and sublimity.
Between sugary sweet and bitter.

This is where birth control pills and Madonna meet, chocolate and ammunition, childhood remnants and adult reality. Motherhood as a balancing act between victimhood and superpower, between social ideal and personal overload. A little bit saint, a little bit heroine, a little bit whore.

For our mothers: contradictory, tired, loving, ironic, combative, sentimental and amazingly resilient. A Madonna who is not worshipped, but taken seriously. Mothers worldwide deserve protection and support. Raising children is the task of an entire society.

With best wishes

Magdalena