Jana Euler’s edition Where the energy comes from, socketing in candlelight (2022) is a handmade ceramic which connects two important aspects of her work:
“What is the source of the energy that sustains, drives and inspires the artist? Does the energy come from the paintings themselves […]? How would the energy be transmitted to the viewer? How does it circulate? […]” [Catherine Chevalier, Exhibition catalogue Where the Ernergy comes from, Kunsthalle Zürich / Bonner Kunstverein, 2014].
In the edition, the socket is activated again as a protagonist of this question:
“Socketing is a neologism of the noun socket. It suggests the classical, occidental duality between active/passive, male/female, strong/weak, subject/object. […] Electrical sockets (commonly called ‘females’ in the building trade) reproduce an essentialism that equates gender with biological sex. But in the artworks they are introduced to evoke not a sexualized human body, but a sexualized social field […].” [See above]
Euler‘s ceramic work lets the ever important question “where the energy comes from“ shine in a new light.