Kinky Affairs at Home

Installation of habitable and textile sculptures.

Emerging from the study of fluxus artist Anne Marie Jehle (1937 – 2000) whose work has been largely overlooked, the series of habitable and textile sculptures ‘Kinky Affairs at Home’ (2022), dialogue with the artist’s oeuvre and archive, now part of the collection of the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein in Vaduz. Jehle lived in a house in Feldkirch, on the border between Austria and Liechtenstein, where living and working spaces were boundlessly interwoven. After her passing, 1,628 works were recovered from the entire “installation” of Jehle’s house which remained locked for almost two decades.
Her found objects and textile collages deal with aspects and things of everyday life, subverting role models and power structures, questioning notions of identity, sexuality and family relationships.
Kinky Affairs at home, takes shapes around body and domestic inhabitations to speak to her work from the contemporary, situated perspective of Mercedes Azpilicueta including that of motherhood. Whether it’s costume sculptures made with used leather garments, laces, copper or old furniture torn apart and reassembled, both series of sculptures reveal the inscription of lives enclosed and contained in rigid structures. They all seem to be potentially animated, bending or carving space for a fearless living.
Kinky Affairs at Home was commissioned by Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz and on show as part of C4, an exhibition curated by Letizia Ragaglia and presenting four solo presentations in conversation with the collection of the museum. C4 ‘s participating artists are Nazgol Ansarinia, Mercedes Azpilicueta, Invernomuto and Diamond Stingily and ran rom May 19 until September 4, 2022

As part of the exhibition, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein published a catalog with Mousse Publishing Milan. For this, Azpilicueta commissioned a text to Mexican writer Susana Vargas Cervantes. Read the text here:

Kinky Affairs at Home, 2022

Credits:
Archival research: Angeliki Tzortzakaki
Essay: Susana Vargas Cervantes
Architectural design: Katharina Kasinger
Costume design: Darsha Golova, Guillermina Baiguera
Advice: Vanina Scolavino
Assistant: Lisa Collin
Thank you to the team of Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein and Dorothea Goop-Jehle.

The series of works Kinky Affairs at Home was shown in Amsterdam at Lumen Travo Gallery as part of Mercedes Azpilicueta’s solo exhibition an old / piece of gum that / streeeeetches curated by Sjoerd Kloosterhuis during Amsterdam Art week 2023 from 2 June to 14 July, 2023.

Photos: Stefan Altenburger, Giovanni Nardi