We all know it, the dream of a white sandy beach, a turquoise sea and tropical palm trees. Even in everyday life, apart from vacation, we seem to be constantly on the hunt for the alleged paradise, unforgettable experiences or the perfect moment. The digital space reinforces our longings: In a soft filter world, we are all forever young, have tanned skin, no wrinkles and a slight buzz. The desire for eternal youth sounds sweet and tempting, like a wonderful dream. The advertising industry has been taking advantage of this desire for decades: "buy this cream, it will make you shine. Do this exercise, it will tighten your skin! Cellulite, hair, wrinkles? Hence with it!". But at some point, our dreams and desires become blurred with the harsh reality.
The idea that one may somehow freeze time and stay in the present moment is as pervasive as it is illusory. In reality, nobody is forever young. And so there is always forbiding finitude behind our utopian fantasies of eternity. In her solo exhibition “forever YOUNG” in the Uxval Gochez Gallery, Katharina impressively depicts this ambiguity.
Arndt looks behind the perfect glance and holds on to what she finds there, unadorned.
In terms of motifs, Arndt also opens up a field of tension between artificiality and a fun society, in addition to rose-coloured glasses, the darker sides also gradually come to light. Here the grin is a tad too wide, there the houseplant droops its head. The dream beach is littered with beer cans, and the coffee is already overboiling before the time. In a society increasingly marked by atheism, we lack the hope of paradise at the end of life. Great panic at the end of the day and an insatiable desire for party, happiness, wealth and sex - life! - are the consequence.
Katharina Arndt visualizes the conflict between reason and fantasy, coolness and anxiety and our eternal search for the perfect moment that lasts forever.