For our third participation at Art Cologne, we are going to present a dialogue between Tammy Langhinrichs, Haruko Maeda, and Ester Parasková. The presentation examines how surfaces and materials function as carriers of personal and collective history, exploring the socio-political narratives embedded within the "skin" of the object.

Tammy Langhinrichs (*1995, Hamburg) investigates identity and social belonging through the motif of the "rogue’s tale." Utilising textiles – such as playful, distorted balaclavas – she explores clothing as a shell that both conceals and confers identity. Her work humorously shifts the art-historical focus from the "gaze" toward the intimacy of fabric as a site of protection and resistance.

Haruko Maeda (*1983, Tokyo) synthesises Western iconography with Japanese Shinto-Buddhist traditions to explore the cycle of life and death. Her practice is a profound meditation on transience (vanitas), transforming the macabre into the sublime. By intertwining mythological structures with individual fates, she questions the boundaries of existence.

Ester Parasková (*1993, Prague) explores the relationship between labor and resistance. Her canvases function as visual protocols of a dialectical struggle: the deconstruction of mechanical, industrial processes – rooted in her own experience – is transformed into creative reconstruction. By using anonymised, deformed Disney archetypes as ciphers for wage labor, she creates a powerful symbiosis of appropriation and authenticity.

Together, this presentation examines how surfaces and materials function as carriers of personal and collective history, exploring the socio-political narratives embedded within the "skin" of the object.