State

The drawing installation State – conceived for the RHA foyer space – shows monumental circular grid made up of around 1800+ minuscule black silhouette figures pinned to the large wall and, on opposite walls, two black clouds are painted as a framework to drawings, a pin flag and a small video projection. The entire space is cast in a pink glow.
The enduring theme in Anita Groener’s work is the dialectic surrounding the dual perspectives of home and displacement as situated within modern geopolitical realities. State engages with the complex of trauma, of hurt and loss that constitutes the core of this dialogue. Ineluctably situated within a collective system, individual trauma seems unrepresentable. Using strategies and economies of drawing, as well as formal aspects of scale and monochromes, the installation seeks to capture the actuality of this lived experience.
Photograph of drawing with black back ground and moon projection. Drawing; Anita Groener, Land, 2011, ink and one pin flag on paper, 57 x 76.5 cm. Image courtesy of the artist. Video; Anita Groener, Moon, 2012, video, looped, 4 x 4 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.