un-hold is a continuation of my ongoing research into the idea of home. Since 2021 I've been working around the idea that home is something built in motion rather than a fixed, settled place to inhabit. Moving between cities, places and continents over the past years has shaped my lived reality and my practice.
For this solo show I've shifted the focus towards the inner forces that create a sense of place and belonging: memory and remembrance. Using drawings, paintings and reliefs as carriers of experienced reality, I started thinking about touch, the intimacy of trains, strange beds, and how memory is inscribed into familiar objects. I refer to it as floating memory — I picture it as images floating on the water's surface. A vast ocean. A small puddle. Memory has no fixed location. It's always moving and changing.
un-hold is about letting go of places, cities, and people — even when you don't exactly know what it is you need to lose. Every work is built from the places I've lived over the past years: fragments of New York, fleeting images of Paris. Assemblies of memory, material and touch.
words by Patrick Ostrowsky, September 2026 --- edited by Camille Jacobson (The Paris Review)
Installationview @ Britta Rettberg
Installationview @ Britta Rettberg
Installationview Prospect Pl pencil on papier, 100 x 70 cm
Installationview @ Britta Rettberg
uncanny floatings 21 (an ocean between the waves), 2026, Ink, watercolours, solvents on paper, 100 x 75 cm
uncanny floatings 23 (eyes to the wind), 2026, Ink, watercolours, solvents on paper, 100 x 75 cm
uncanny floatings 38 (shape of memory II), 2026, Ink, watercolours, solvents on paper, 100 x 75 cm
uncanny floatings 6 (a gift), 2026, Ink, watercolours, solvents on paper, 100 x 75 cm
uncanny floatings 37 (what thoughts look like II), 2026, Ink, watercolours, solvents on paper, 100 x 75 cm
uncanny floatings 12 (a way of thinking), 2026, Ink, watercolours, solvents on paper, 100 x 75 cm
soft bindings (room with my soul left out), 2026, Concrete, steel, photo, polycarbonate,epoxy resin, ink, painting on wood in artist frame, 36 x 25,5 x 3,5 cm
soft bindings (room with my soul left out) details
soft bindings (there’s something in the back of my mind), 2026, Concrete, steel, photo, polycarbonate,epoxy resin, ink, painting on wood in artist frame, 36 x 25,5 x 3,5 cm
soft bindings (dreaming all my dreams), 2026, Concrete, steel, photo, polycarbonate, epoxy resin, ink, painting on wood in artist frame, 36 x 25,5 x 3,5 cm
benching #5 (waiting for a friend), 2026, Concrete, steel, spray-paint, polycarbonate, epoxy resin, ink, tape, plaster, pigmente, painting, salvaged wood, 52 x 25,5 x 101 cm
Installationview @ Britta Rettberg
