An Ocean of Possibilities with Islands of Promises – curatorial text

Author: Martina Rötlingová

Curator: Nikoleta Bukovská

You can view the photo report from the exhibition here

In her current exhibition, Martina Rötlingová programmatically follows up on her previous project Great Expectations (Station Gallery, 2022), once again exploring the influence of social media on interpersonal relationships. Through reflections on corporeality and female subjectivity, she addresses transformations in intimacy, sexuality, and romantic relationships in today’s pre-digitalized world.

Making its exhibition debut is a series of provocative graphic miniatures depicting erections in various positions. The series is based on the artist’s private collection of sexually explicit photographs received from men through sexting on social media platforms. The phallus — generally considered a symbol of dominance and power — is reduced to a miniature format of only 5 × 5 cm. In a witty gesture, the artist plays with male ego while critically undermining the phallocentric subject.

Masculinity is further destabilized and ironized through the explicit display of paintings of male intimate body parts arranged on a shelf, resembling a collection of trophies belonging to a female hunter. While the depictions of male genitalia are intentionally diminished in order to decompress phallic power and ego, the dominant position within the exhibition constellation is taken by an oversized enlargement of female genitalia, further elevated in meaning by the inscription L’ORIGINE (“Origin”).

In the intricate world of online dating, self-presentation through profile photographs plays an equally important role. Hunting, seduction, and attraction unfold through erotically charged portraits which, in the artist’s interpretation, carry autobiographical traces. In painted-over photographic fragments of the body captured in the manner of “selfies,” the artist’s inclination toward suggestive imagination and sensuality becomes apparent.

Lascivious gestures are softened through various expressive means: blurred contours, motion, and the fragmentation of body parts. Female figures are dressed exclusively in lace lingerie, which metaphorically becomes armor for battle — giving the wearer courage before the act of “the hunt.”

A central motif of the exhibition becomes a visual metaphor for the dynamics of a relationship’s development and trajectory, embodied in an object-based processual installation. By combining floral arrangements with served fruit — associated with abundance and sexual allure — the artist materializes the idea of a table of pleasure. She creates a contemplative, meditative space for quietness and intimacy, shared between two people.

Within this ephemeral installation, viewers can observe gradual changes, decay, and decomposition bordering on an aesthetic of disgust. Against the backdrop of degradation — evoking both the beginning and the end of a relationship — the artist examines the lifespan of romantic bonds: from the initial overflow of passionate intoxication to alienation, emotional cooling, and sobering disillusionment.

The installation is complemented by two new large-scale paintings, between which a dynamic, almost sexual tension emerges. They may be understood as pendants: on one side Adam, the biblically first man; on the other Lilith, his disobedient first wife, expelled from paradise for refusing to obey her husband’s commands and prohibitions.

The artist’s self-stylization into mythological or historical figures is a recurring strategy in Rötlingová’s practice, stemming from her interest in searching for and embedding metaphorical meanings within her painterly work.

Martina Rötlingová (1987) focuses primarily on figurative painting, through which she critically analyzes and evaluates female experience in relation to digital media. She studied at the Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica, Faculty of Fine Arts, in the Contemporary Painting Studio under Prof. Stanislav Balko.

She has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions and has repeatedly presented her work internationally (Czech Republic, Belgium, Bulgaria, Italy, and others). She currently lives and works in Antwerp.