No End of Sleep2021
series of 6 works 200 x 145 cm
Digital print and oil pastel on plush velvet
Photos: Nick Ash, Text: Isabelle Thul
Memory and past trauma play a significant role in Aline Schwibbe’s varied practice. Through different media such as drawing, film and photography, Schwibbe revisits fragmented memories which she considers to be in a cyclical occurrence rather than a linear history. In Schwibbe’s words, “there is no beginning and no clear end”. Just as in a dream, individual events and storylines intermingle and cross-reference to result in a hardly decipherable meaning. The series “No End of Sleep” (2021) which consists of 6 large-scale and 6 smaller works on velvet, explores the state in which we are unable to decipher between dream and reality. Film stills printed on velvet are layered with oil pastel drawings and stitching. While the printed film stills portray what appears to be empirical evidence of past occurrences, the revision of these memories through the drawing and stitching seems to suggest another sphere of reality and knowledge beyond the empirical. The idea of the non-linear chronology of experience and memory is further addressed in Schwibbe’s cross-media work including video, animation, and installation.
