Catharina Bond

Catharina Bond, a visual artist based in Vienna, Austria is living and working. And not the other way round.

She studied one time economics and three times art. This unequal number gives evidence to her determined effort to escape a conservative neoliberalist family. Nevertheless, she eventually found herself in the high net worth economics of the contemporary art market – a neoliberalist dreamland. The irony of this predicament underlies her work and focus on shared personal experience and the absurd.

Catharina Bond now successfully seeks a way to produce art, which is broadly accessible, inclusive, serving to connect people while eschewing the maniacal narcissistic tropes of the fine artist.

Her work transcends the need for outdated art historical references - no need to quote a dead, white male to be legitimised in the discourse. It does not require a particular social, economic, or educational pedigree of its viewer. Bond's work only requires the ability to feel emotion. The work gives hope and certainty in an uncertain time.

Her most recent body of work Hearts in Hands, a DIY-kit draws on her years of experience with silicon sculpture making and a desire to encapsulate and capture what people missed the most during this global pandemic - the need for touch and holding a reassuring hand.

Catharina Bond has given us a way to create our own personal keepsake of a loved one's hand to keep with us at any time - as a memorial or as a token of gratitude or as a token of love.

Hearts in Hands allows us all to be creators and participate in fine art.

www.hearts-in-hands.at

Your loved one's hand cast.

Keep it.

Hearts in Hands, DIY-Box

Hearts in Hands, finished silicone casts

Holding Granny's physical hand and her silicone cast.

This project originated in a time when the pandemic reduced body contact and demanded our separation.

Take my hand and keep my heart.

www.hearts-in-hands.at

Medium:

Box, Silicone, You

'Let me play among the stars'

'Let me play among the stars' — What the art world has in common with self-improvement apps is the eternal struggle against oneself, undertaken through self-imposed exhibition and never-ending optimization processes. Network your way up to the contemporary art stars- power transmission like a in a Newton's cradle with silicone chickens: pre-programmed failure.

'They stand alone.' series — When you combine material of low value with an object of high value it brings back the "readymade" to its economic relevance of artificial scarcity. This addresses the social construction of hegemonic and financial power, which is not only being reproduced by the current state of art and exhibition production, but is also being exploited by it. (This work was specially produced for the exhibition Space Sotheby's Vienna.)