Daphne Ahlers: Die Würflerin

This volume was published on the occasion of the exhibition Die Würflerin, May 28–August 21, 2022 at Kunsthaus Glarus, Switzerland of German artist Daphne Ahlers. With her sculptures and objects, Ahlers draws on elements and symbols of apparently firmly anchored patriarchal images and discourses, and subsequently takes these into alternative forms of expression. She works with the concepts of “soft sculpture,” in which mainly malleable soft materials are used, and “shell sculpture,” which is based on forms that are made to protect soft materials from external violence. Ahlers finds models and ideas for her own thoughts in historical contexts from the cultural sciences and popular culture. An example that Ahlers has used for her works in the motif of the ribbon. The characteristics of these forms and their appertaining constructs are adapted in multiple revisions and variations on a theme, while also being subjected to contrary feminine perspectives. In the ways she uses the malleable, soft, and adaptable features of textiles, foam, latex, and other synthetic materials, Ahlers operates within a material approach that metaphorically appeals to our ability to change and shape social discourses.