Marielis Seyler

born 1942 in Wels, Austria

​

http://www.seyler.at/

 

Wrapped, buried, hidden, leaves, sprinkled with seeds and herbs, lost in the endless, appear the figures of MARIELIS SEYLER. All of them are lonely, many set within an endless nature, nevertheless belonging within that space, in unionson. They move like giant birds across cliffs, spreading their wings, or alight onto branches of lifeless trees, or nestle on the surface of the earth as if seeking comfort close to the mother’s womb. In sum the images raise the question as to how small, insignificant a human is compared to the raw forces of nature. Exposed, inspite of all efforts to tame them by all available technical means, they remain trapped or are imprisoned in the context of misunderstanding from the subordination to nature.

MARIELIS SEYLER dives to the very bottom of this misunderstanding, the revolt against the laws of nature, which are simply impossible to tame. She wants to eliminate the opposites and is seeking the truth which hides behind the illusion of reconciliation between being exposed and unconditional assimilation.

But it is not merely the beauty, or the feeling of security she is seeking; she wants to visualize vulnerability, the jumping off point is the pain of rejection. She makes clear that human beings never fully understand nature, let alone surrender to it. To capture the interplay of those forces is her aim; she wants to expose the fruitless supposition of human intelligence, which demands progress, while on the other hand there is a dev-il may care attitude about the laws of nature that held validity throughout time eternal. She intends to expose the vain interplay of those powers; her pictures are a brave attempt to lift the secret, find the mysterious path that enables us to spot the light in hope to illuminate darkness. By means of classical black and white photography, MARIELIS SEYLER hones into the language of the soul,understood by many, regardless of their mother tongue. Be it seeds or already sprouted herbs placed on the face of a young woman, they represent a beginning. Fallen leaves scattered upon a youthful body verbalise the antonym.

The white, fragile and almost virginal vail alternatively ties the model to earth and trees, and at the very same time acts as wings. Resignation, surrender, resurrection. The quest to shed light upon the un-known, the struggle that accompanies that effort is expressed touchingly in the “grass skirt” series. MARIELIS SEYLER scours the deep and with a seemingly single sequence of an in and exhale illustrates that mystery, magic, struggle, and release are part of one and the same.

Angelica Bäumer