Natalie Obermaier’s works are hand cut collages that subvert the purpose of advertisements. By skillfully weaving magazine images, she is able to shift the viewer’s perspective and open a dialogue past a first glance. To do this, Obermaier collects women’s magazines and implements collage techniques to collide different forms into geometric shapes and patterns. By reassembling the pages used, her artworks interlock and abstract models from their original state. This allows Obermaier to reclaim control of the narrative perpetuated by fashion magazines which in most cases, promote eurocentric beauty standards that pressures society to look a certain way. Her subjects are cut through and pieced together to blend and reconfigure bodies in an intricate and delicate way that highlights the true beauty within imperfection. One work that stands out is her piece, “Bubble Gum” which captures Obermaier’s approach to interlacing two completely different pages, connecting them and finishing with a transformative work of art.
Curation and statement by Beven Kersaint