So you caged the bird, ‘cause it won‘t fly back
| Height | 100 cm |
|---|---|
| Width | 230 cm |
| Length/Depth | 6.5 cm |
Tusche auf Leinwand
Technik:
Handgemalte Spitze auf Leinwand
Versand:
Die Arbeit wird aufgespannt auf einem Keilrahmen versendet – inklusive Echtheitszertifikat und Signatur auf der Rückseite.
Beschreibung:
Dieses Werk gehört zu meinen Spitzenbilder-Serie, also großformatige Tuschearbeiten, in denen handgemalte Spitzenmuster nicht als Dekoration fungieren, sondern als feministische Semiotik. Die Spitze, traditionell als weiblich, häuslich und ornamental kodiert, wird hier zum Träger einer direkten, konfrontativen Sprache.
Der in das Muster eingebettete Text „So, you caged the bird, ‘cause it won’t fly back” funktioniert gleichzeitig als Provokation und Diagnose. Er spricht von den Kontrollmechanismen patriarchaler Strukturen, die weibliche Handlungsmacht nicht durch Gewalt, sondern durch die stille Domestizierung von Begehren, Ambition und Freiheit einschränken. Der Vogel wurde nicht gebrochen. Er wurde eingesperrt. Und wer den Käfig einmal erkennt, kann ihn nicht mehr verleugnen.
Die Kollision zwischen der Zartheit der Spitze und der Schärfe des Textes ist bewusst gewählt. Schönheit wird als Falle eingesetzt und der Blick wird von der ornamentalen Oberfläche angezogen, bevor die Bedeutung trifft. Das ist dieselbe Logik, die das Werk kritisiert.
In der Tradition der feministischen Semiotik von Jenny Holzer und der Textilpraxis von Louise Bourgeois positioniert Zota das Dekorative als genuin politisch. Als Ort, an dem Weiblichkeit, Macht und Widerstand aufeinandertreffen.
Das Werk war Teil der „Where is my mind“ in Galerie Obrist Essen. Abbildungen von der Vernissage sind auch zu sehen.
Mara Zota
Mara Zota is an artist born in Sibiu, Romania
,and studied at the Essen Academy of Fine Arts in Markus Vater’s class.
“My practice operates at the intersection of post-feminist critique, material culture and the visual semiotics of constructed femininity. I work primarily with oil on canvas and mixed-media textile experiments, exploring how femininity functions not as an innate characteristic but as a culturally produced performance – one that is learnt, repeated and enforced through image, material and the gaze.
At the heart of my work is the figure of the Chrome Dollie, a series of archetypal avatars whose hyper-aestheticised surfaces conceal the ideological structures that give rise to them. Drawing on Judith Butler’s theory of performativity, these figures embody femininity as a quotation: as the repeated staging of cultural scripts that make the constructed appear natural. The chrome surface—reflective, impenetrable, seductive—functions simultaneously as armour and a trap. It deflects the gaze whilst simultaneously affirming its power.
The recurring presence of lace in my work introduces a second material register. Historically coded as feminine, domestic and decorative, lace is a material that requires extraordinary labour whilst appearing effortless. In feminist semiotics, following Laura Mulvey’s concept, such materials function as fetish objects—fragments that channel desire whilst concealing the conditions of their production. In my paintings and textile works, lace and chrome exist in deliberate collision: the ornamental meets the industrial, the intimate meets the impenetrable.
My more recent work extends this investigation into an experimental material practice. By scanning, manipulating and assembling textiles – lace, crochet, chain stitch, chrome-sprayed fabric – I explore how materials carry gendered meaning and how this meaning can be destabilised through the process.
Underlying
it all is the virgin-whore dichotomy, the fundamental binary through which Western patriarchal culture has historically organised and constrained female identity. My archetypal Chrome Dollies do not dissolve this binary. They multiply it, lay bare its mechanisms and reject its logic. Each archetype – The Good Girl, The Man-Eater, The Kawaii Doll, The Party Doll – occupies a different position within this constructed spectrum and reveals not individual character, but collective cultural projection.
My work offers no resolution. It offers recognition.”
Mara
has been part of the Studenten Kunstmarkt since February 2022.
2021
Applicant’s scholarship from the Essen University of the Arts
2022
SKM exhibition in Hamburg at stilwerk
2023 – May
Stroke Art Fair, Munich
2023 – July
“Schneeball – A Masked Ball as a Work of Art”
2023 – August
‘LabEurope’ – residency grant in Osnabrück
2023 – December
‘Graustufen’
2024 – January
‘4 Shades of Grey’
2024 – April
‘ArtArtist’
2025 - February
“Nature and Vitality” at Raum55
2025 - March–July
“Young Blood 4.0” at the Art Safari Museum, Bucharest
2025 - March–June
“Karyatiden” at Galerie
Gublia
2025 - June
“Where is my mind” at Galerie Obrist, Essen
, 2025 - July
“the only way out is through” at Neuer Kunstverein, Wuppertal
, 2025 - September
Academy Positions at Berlin Art Week
, 2025 – September:
Bachelor of Fine Arts with a grade of 1.0 from the Essen
University of Fine Arts
2026 – March
: Nomination for the “Junge Positionen NRW” sponsorship award
2026
Mara has been part of the Studenten Kunstmarkt since February 2022.
Other artworks by the artist
