Ellen Semen is showing works from the last one and a half years in the current exhibition at Siemens_artLab. These are pictures with fairy-tale, historical and autobiographical references. Pictures between dream and reality that are designed as a "conflict-free zone" and also show less violence than her earlier works. While viewers of the early works still find threatening figures scattered across the picture surface, in the more recent works the crime has usually already happened or can even be averted.
In "Shooting", murderous robots are heading towards a self-portrait of the artist - Ellen Semen attempts a peace offering with a flower and the pursuers are held back by rampant ivy.
Flowers and plants are a leitmotif in Ellen Semen's art. They play the leading role in her "flower paintings" in particular. They form the antithesis to weapons and violence, which are also almost always present in her dream worlds.
Formally, two directions can be distinguished - on the one hand, there are the "flower paintings" with many smaller plant motifs. On the other hand, a series of works is created simultaneously or alternately with these, which is larger and more linear. Here the figures have more space to act. Three works from this series can be seen in this exhibition: "Erschießung", "Helden vor" and "Superman".
In "Helden vor", the artist draws inspiration from baroque influences. A modern putto threatens the beauty in the center. Men are grouped around her, who also accuse her or give her gifts and kiss her feet. The protagonists almost all symbolize anti-heroes, who also appear in the artist's real life. But she is looking for her hero! Has she found him yet - perhaps we will find him in the painting?
One of the main works in the flower painting series is the painting "Sleeping Floozy". In this painting, a beautiful dead woman lies, watched by the 4 evangelists, Rambo and a child soldier. The female soldier is based on a postcard depicting the bombing of Nancy around 1916 (with the child figure holding a huge bomb). These are all historical events that Ellen Semen uses for her fantasy scene.
In many pictures, as in "Black Hole" and "No Man's Land", wounded women play the leading role. Nevertheless, Ellen Semen's new works can be read as images of hope. She herself says: "they may be dark, but they are brightly desired". They are images of longing for a conflict-free world.