Research Task 5.0 

Visual Language 

Alice Wellinger 




Alice Wellinger is an award winning Austrian based Illustrator. With a surreal and comtemporary approach to her personal work, she works emotively to produce pieces that reflect and contend with the burdens of life, real life issues with an ironic twist. Works also touch on connections with childhood years. 

The collection of work that I most engaged with are 'The burden of debts'. 

Here the paintings depict how enormous the burden of money can be to one life. 

'Sleepless night's' depicts a young woman sat up in her bed. She looks head on into an enormous, billowing wave. The wave is so strong that it has lifted the bed off the ground, the lady has no choice but to ride the wave from her bed. There is no rest here as to me, the wave will only get bigger in its force. They stare each other in the eye. The woman clings onto the blanket on the bed, but the blanket is where the wave begins. 

The grass beneath her is green, however due to the wave lifting the bed, the green is at an angle that suggests uneven ground beneath her. It presents an uncomfortable setting to the viewer. 

The colours are beautiful and the tone of the figure on the bed is visually in harmony with the blue tones of the wave. In this painting they have almost become as one. There is such elegance to them both, so beautifully painted, serene in their presence almost. It's just the wave represents burden and therefore, despite the serenity of colour, there is great force at work here. This piece reflects upon a great threat.  

Wellinger explores the impact of certain aspects of life, a perfect example here. 'Sleepless night's' communicates the emotional journey of struggling with debt, where the concern of the debt consumes you and you and your troubles are of equal measure. 

Note - Wellinger also painted in a wave in the editorial piece 'Creativity-Brainstorming'. The wave is painted in the same way but used to communicate the thought process. A male figure features. 

"I always try and tell a story in my pictures - I like it when people have something to think about". 

- Alice Wellinger. 

'Behind the mask' shows a beautiful woman holding up a bold and big emoji face. The emoji beams a smiling face, a mask to the figure behind. The woman holds this emoji, presenting a falsehood to the world. 

As with 'Sleepless night's' there is an elegance to this piece. The young woman is beautifully dressed in a green, turquoise dress. She blends beautifully with the tones of the sky. This must be intentional as she blends in so well that she is secondary to the bright harshness of the emoji. It is the emoji that steals the viewers attention at first, she is almost invisible compared. The mask presented to the world. The glass is straight and green beneath her. The paintings are contemporary with a clever timeless elegance about them. 

This is an empathic painting, I feel sorrow for the girl. We all know what it's like to put on a brave face, and over time many of us know how heavy the face becomes. Wellinger communicates a level of emotional intelligence that can't be missed and a relatable life experience to an audience, an honesty. 

'Sinking boat' 

A woman tries to navigate a rowing boat. She is at one end of the boat with oars, trying to make her way forward. At the other end, a large 3D abstract, textured, unusually shaped grey rock heavily weighs the boat down with such force, the woman is left balancing in the sky. 

The figure is dressed in a green dress, the tone of green as the ocean beneath her. The same harmony of colour as 'Behind the mask and 'Sleepless night's'. The woman becomes the ocean and in contrast the grey of the 3D rock takes centre stage and engulfs the viewers attention. 

As a viewer I have such empathy for this lady, she holds onto the oars despite how impossible her journey is with such a heavy weight to carry. She wants to carry on. 

Short Statement about the work of Alice Wellinger

Alice Wellinger presents a way of communicating real life issues and the complexity of emotions and consequences that go hand in hand with them. 

Interpreting the connections we all make in our everyday lives, Wellinger implements a wealth of emotional intelligence to display the disconnect that can emerge from these connections and the consequences they can have on our lives. 

A reflective narrative uses a poetry of colour and often  the female form to bring about a timeless elegance. Matched with a contemporary surrealism on the page, each piece is modern and relevant yet so cleverly ageless. 

3D organic, textured and abstract forms also make an appearance to add weight to the emotional burden at hand,  relayed is a patchwork of messages on the page as so beautifully presented in the collection of works 'The burden of debts'. 

More often than not there is an urgent centre piece that grabs the viewers attention with urgency. An oversized emoji, a wave, a rock - An ironic twist to the story, though acting as metaphors of the stark honesty we all recognise.

I find each of Wellinger's works as a reflection of us, our world, our society. A glance in the mirror, so relatable it hurts. A visual language that can communicate the hurdles both physical and emotional that we all face, without the use of words. 

References:  

DW. https://designwrld.com/alice-wellingers-editorial-illustrations. Accessed on 06.Nov.2021

Wellinger, A. http://www.alice-wellinger.com/The-burden-of-debts. Accessed 06.Nov 2021 

The re:art. https://arthur.io/art/alice-wellinger. Accessed 06.Nov.2021 


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