Acrylic Paint, Leaf Gold, Metal.
102 × 180 cm, 2024.
Artwork by Lotte Hauss
Beauty, desire and the weight of expectations
The Bride is a large-scale textile work featuring five golden, mask-like faces on raw canvas. From the open mouth of the central figure, shimmering fabric spills onto the floor, resembling an extravagant bridal dress.
The bride carries centuries of expectations: beauty, purity, desirability and social value. Her golden faces combine memories of ancient funerary masks, archaeological encounters in Mexico and contemporary cosmetic sheet masks. Their shapes are borrowed from disposable beauty masks, transformed into something precious, archaic and slightly grotesque.
Lotte is interested in how images change their meaning depending on where and how we encounter them. A familiar beauty product can suddenly resemble an ancient ritual object.
The flowing fabric was inspired by old fountains, where water pours endlessly from sculpted mouths. Here, the bride seems to release everything that has been projected onto her: ideals, desires and expectations.
The iridescent fabric moves beyond the canvas into the surrounding space. Its appearance shifts with the light, somewhere between beauty and excess.
“The bride wears the expectations placed upon her. And then she pours them out.”
