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Myths, folk tales, fairy tales, and the way in which these have been presented over the centuries play a central role in the work of Clara Lezla (1995). The artist examines these narrative forms in order to gain a better understanding of contemporary society, as such stories often form the basis of how we think and act. By analysing, combining and repositioning them in new contexts, Lezla creates new narratives that reconnect us with the archetypes from our collective memory.
For Homemade (2025), her installation at Prospects, Lezla drew inspiration from Ship of Fools (1494), a medieval satire by the German writer Sebastian Brant. The book describes a ship steered by fools, doomed never to reach its destination. Lezla is particularly interested in the iconography of these figures. Why is the fool always depicted wearing a hat and carrying a staff? And how do these images, and the ideas underlying them, continue to resonate today?
For her ceramic fools, Lezla draws on popular visual culture and toy-like aesthetics. This results in a hybrid character that occupies a space between artwork, narrative figure and consumer object. The drawers from which the figures emerge symbolize different historical layers. However, they can also be interpreted as a metaphor for memory itself: a place where memories, symbols and stories are often unconsciously stored, only to surface again unexpectedly.
Written by Esther Darley