About
Barbara Oettingher Searle (Santiago, 1981) has a degree in Fine Arts at the University of Chile and a Master of Arts degree from the Catholic University of Chile.
She has participated in various exhibitions at the Museum of Visual Arts (MAVI), Museum of Contemporary Art of Quinta Normal (MAC), CTA Capital, Buenos Aires, Argentina; BECH Gallery, Cultural Center Cerro Carcel in Valparaiso Chile, Kavlin Cultural Center in Punta del Este, Uruguay, CAP Foundation Room (Pinacoteca) in Concepcion, Chile, among others.
At the same time her work has been published in magazines, books and art catalogs (nacional and International) like Pheriperal Art-eries “Young contemporary art review”; "Chilean Illustration", by ocho editores and Plop! Gallery; "Show Room", emerging artists, F-Stop Magazine Latin American Issue, "Sueños Latinos" Best Latin American Art of 2011, University of Palermo, Buenos Aires, Argentina; 10x15 international journal, "I love cachai", among others.
Currently she is a member of The Tremendous Family, Texas and Verve Illustrator & Photographer Agency, Jakarta, Indonesia.
Works
Symbiosis: Symbiosis is composed of a series of 10 portraits of women (5 portraits of daughters + 5 portraits of mothers) created through digital photomontages. Each portrait is generated from the mixture of parts of the face of a mother over the face of her daughter (by exchanging the eyes, nose and mouth between them). The purpose of this operation were to create 10 portraits that represent the symbiosis of the internal objects (based on psychoanalytic theory) reflected from 5 portraits of mothers with 5 portraits of their daughters respectively. In each picture (the daughter and her mother) demonstrate the mother-child relationship, characterized by the fusion of self and the primary figure of affection (mother), creating a relationship characterized by regression to a time utero, where the body of the mother contains the infant's body, a situation in adulthood, in the absence of a third castrating (the father), tends to build a relationship full of affection and hostility undifferentiated as a tool for separation. Symbiosis then define a relationship in which both individuals feed on each other and occupy similar places, and even coming to exchange their roles. Each holds to the other a similar power, belong together and they exchange feelings with each other, generating significant shared child inheriting the debts of the past conflicts. Resulting from this relationship that combine the internal objects in one image the internalization of the child and his mother, fusing undifferentiated, thus causing the rivalry, identification and rejection of the characteristics that child sees his mother. The purpose of the work
Project in progress Blind Spot: The work consists of a series photographs of 20 x 20 cm e/o. Individuals are invited from different fields and ages to write on paper a confession. When the person decides, he/she will take the paper to a photography study and will proceed to modify it (tear into pieces, crumple, burn, bend, etc.) according to their convenience. In turn, they will be given the opportunity to choose the background color to deposit the paper. After the ritual, the modified paper will be registered in a picture. Through cathartic writing emotions and thoughts are placed on a paper to get rid of them. Thereby those who participate in this process takes out from its body the message the letters carry within, putting on an external object (the letter) part of its own existence (personal thoughts) to find relief by destroying that (he/she) decide will no longer be part of him/her. Then the remains of paper have been accommodated on a disposition to be photographed. This procedure allows the resignification of the content of the writing, by appropriating the destroyed pieces arranged to the gaze of others.
