Conscious Connections– an exhibition by Kirsten Wechselberger

Text Marita van Rooyen

It started with the butterflies: all 365 of them stuck on the entrance walls of the Goethe Centre. This is what drew the crowds and was highlighted in the newspapers. Actually, the main idea behind Conscious Connections was born some seven months ago.

Kirsten Wechselberger, the funky-haired woman behind the ‘evolution’, ‘tender’, ‘oneness’, ‘bewitched’, ‘genial’ and the rest of the ‘word butterflies’, had a dream. In fact, it was more of a fascination, but she eventually decided to go public and threw her flying papers with a ‘wow’ onto the walls. “I had met a person who became my muse, and one of the things that happens when you’re infatuated with someone, is that butterflies rise in your stomach. So I created the butterfly installation and called it Muse, as a declaration of my infatuation.”

“Another angle is that in Greek mythology, the psyche is represented as a butterfly. The butterfly is seen as a symbol of resurrection, transition, celebration, lightness, time and soul. My idea was also to share this good feeling with others.”

As part of the feelings that sparked her ideas, the three-phased exhibition consists of two-dimensional mixed media works; a video installation entitled Label that is based on performance art presented on 14 April in Maerua Mall; and an installation of beads and fishing line, which will be on display only on the evening of the official opening of Conscious Connections.

“My art in general reflects how I relate to the world and the difficulties I have processing some of the inputs; how everything is connected. It’s about communicating the things that influence me… reflecting the environment around me after being processed internally. I feel my way through life.”

The Conscious Connections exhibition will be opened on 31 May at the Goethe Centre Auditorium in Fidel Castro Street by artist Christiane Hilbert, Kirsten’s former teacher and the person who inspired her to study art.

This article appeared in the May’12 edition of FLAMINGO Magazine.