Artist Talk Julika Rudelius with Julian Ross

Surfaces and façades are planes of projection and means of representation, but they are also social constructs. We recognize them in bodies, architecture, and objects such as cars: visible layers through which we relate to the world. Norms, social codes, patterns of behavior, and political convictions function as invisible façades behind which people position themselves, seek protection, or derive authority.

Now that we are constantly viewed through a lens, these surfaces seem to become ever more convex, fuller, and smoother. Faces, bodies, and status symbols appear inflated and hyperreal, at times almost more three-dimensional than the human being itself. These physical and social surfaces not only shape how power is made visible, but also how it remains concealed, acting as boundaries between the intimate and the outside world. They inform our perception of power, masculinity, and identity. And as everything increasingly asserts itself on the surface, one question becomes unavoidable: what remains of the inner self?

Taking the exhibition The Seamless Real as its point of departure, Julian Ross and Julika Rudelius engage in a conversation about how Rudelius explores physical and social surfaces as carriers of ideas about power, identity, and representation.