Ann Wolff | Persona

Ann Wolff is one of the most important and striking artists to use the expressive diversity of the material glass in a new and virtuoso manner. Continually exploring the existential questions of being human is an important and fundamental driving force for her work.

The exhibition title Persona addressed the subject of the mask. In ancient theater the masks actors wore were to express the essence of the character being played. They were called persona, which stems from the Latin personare – to sound through and through (the mask). This is also the origin of the psychological concept of a person. Against this background, the person is interpreted as a “mask” (social role) as well as something “in behind” (actual identity), which makes itself felt through the mask.

In her works relating to the exhibition’s theme, Ann Wolff addressed the question of the individual self and the various identities we develop in the course of our lives. She uses the transparency of glass, the material’s special characteristic, to show various levels right down to the “naked face,” the face without a mask. Consciously employing elements such as positive and negative, inside and outside, body and void, she sounds out the idea of “persona”. Reflections and doublings compellingly involve the other person, as well as the viewer, as counterparts. They also mirror, however, the alter ego – the other – and our being strangers to ourselves, something all human beings experience – an often disconcerting part of our lives.