Erika Harrsch - Eduarda de Souza

Erika Harrsch, Andro. Mixed media (acrylic, watercolor, pastel, pencil and ink on paper and collage), 50 x 38 in.

“The fascination for an inaccessible erotic world causes an uncommon excitement in me.”
—Erika Harrsch

Looking at artist Erika Harrsch’s figure, gestures and expressions is much like admiring one of her works of art. Harrsch is 36 years old, red haired and filled with sexual energy. Having received a traditional education in painting, this training is now something that the artist juxtaposes with a more multidisciplinary approach to art-making. Above all, however, the artist’s work is deeply embedded in her Mexican roots—roots which, according to her, “she cannot escape from.” Spring 2007 will mark the opening of Harrsch’s solo exhibition at Galeria Leme, Sao Paulo, Brazil, an art gallery which has been in the market for only three years and which has gained much recognition for its team of national and international young artists. Additionally too, Harrsch will showcase a multimedia piece called Body Maps with the multidisciplinary group, VisionIntoArt, at the Whitney Museum as a part of the Live Whitney program.

Erika Harrsch’s eyes spark when sharing her views on Nabokov and how he wrote fantastic and pleasurable letters to his sister describing his practice of spending hours, days and months observing butterfly’s dissected genitalia under a microscope. “The visual realm of the genitalia seen through the microscope is amazing. I was able to observe and to photograph this during the months that I studied for my project with an entomologist,” says Harrsch. Like the ideas presented by Georges Bataille, hers are complex and sexually directed. “I am strongly drawn in by the way Bataille establishes relationships between Eros and Thanathos, sex-life and death. This attraction reverberates in her piece Imagoes from her “Object of Desire’’ series, which will be presented at the Leme show. The series consists of striking photographs of butterflies digitally fused with female genitalia, which all match their country of origin both in terms butterfly species and female part. These images push the boundaries of cultures in which the most forbidden parts of a woman’s body are perceived as inaccessible.