Jorinde Voigt

Critics have compared Voigt's works to those of minimalist and conceptual artists,^[3] specifically the event scores and visual artworks of 20th-century avant-garde composers John Cage and Iannis Xenakis,^[4] the algorithmic patterns of Hanne Darboven,^[5] and the procedural parameters of Sol LeWitt.^[6]

In 2002, Voigt began making drawings that have been described as projection surfaces, visualized thought models, scientific experimental designs, notations, scores, and diagrams.^[7][8] In 2003, she developed a system in the series Notations Florida and Indonesia. These drawings record the artist's impressions while traveling from Orlando to Miami.^[9] Further work cycles, developed from the study of perception, were established in this early series.^[10] Although formally and conceptually diverse, these cycles share an interest in representing underlying structures and capturing the simultaneity of experience through markings on paper.^[3]

Views on Chinese Erotic Art from 16th to 20th Century is based on historic Chinese erotic paintings and prints. Voigt studied these images and rebuilt them using paper cut-outs, short fragments of text, and simple diagram-like layouts.^[11] Voigt repeatedly scrutinised each piece for separate observations, which were compiled into her own work.^[12] This resulted in the finished pieces resembling charts or tables rather than traditional pictures.^[13] Poet and critic John Yau wrote that "by unraveling the erotic views into their constituent parts, the artist essentially undresses the encounter, turning it into a collection of visual and written data."^[13]

While earlier works developed notation systems that visually translated the perception of objects or situations, Piece for Words and Views is the first work cycle in which Voigt attempted to find images that corresponded to internal processes. The series transforms specific words from A Lover's Discourse by Roland Barthes into both abstract and representational imagery. Each mental image receives a specific color and form, which is rendered via contoured drawing on colored vellum. The final drawing was made by collaging multiple images, forming a relation among them.^[14]

In Voigt's 48-part series Love as Passion: On the Codification of Intimacy, a passage from Niklas Luhmann's 1982 book by the same name is distilled into a drawing.^[15]

With Immersion, Voigt sought to develop appropriate forms to understand the inner constitution of archetypal images and how to share or experience such images collectively. Central elements in these works include the torus, arrows, axes, and lines.^[16] Voigt commences each work in the Immersion series by immersing paper in pigment. Each color denotes a particular atmosphere or emotional state.^[8] A large torus figure forms the central element of the composition, while every variation features a change in its dimensions. Voigt describes Immersion as a "time-based series", with each piece created one after the other and intended to reflect an individual moment in time. "When you look at the series as a whole, you can see the exact connection between those moments," Voigt explains. "In real life, you focus on each moment at a time, and you can't stop and zoom out to see the bigger picture."^[17][18]

Jorinde Voigt's work is showcased in various collections internationally, including the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Art Institute of Chicago; Kupferstichkabinett Berlin; İstanbul Modern; Federal Art Collection (Bundeskunsthalle), Bonn; the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg; Kunsthaus Zürich; Kunstmuseum Stuttgart; Norwegian Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo; and Grafische Sammlung, Munich.^[19]