Lenka Klodová: Pregnant Songs

english and czech
The woman, put on a pedestal by Western culture, is usually beautiful, naked and defenseless. Klodová argues against this ideal model of womanhood found in museums, galleries, advertisements and in European art history publications. Although Klodová demonstrates the absurdity of such presentations of womankind, her “ideal” is by no means an asexual woman warrior wearing blue stockings. The nakedness of a woman is not the opposite of freedom; motherhood is not the opposite of erotic desire and intellectual maturity.
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From text by Martina Pachmanová

Since 1999, Lenka Klodová has been investigating the theme of women through the sensitive material of the pornography industry. Fascinating are the variety of ideas anchored in that one theme, the simplicity of the material, and constant invention in the field of method. Lenka devotes herself with the same seriousness to sculptural work as to paper-cutting; her works range from monumental realizations, like Miluji (I Love, 2001) in Neratovice, to flat “sculptures” made out of cardboard dressed up in tailored clothes, but there are also samizdat mystifications and body performances. All these methods of creation mingle with and complement each other. The work with porno-magazines is developed further in the samizdat magazines, Bříza (Birches, 2000) and Komíny (Chimneys, 2001). The new magazine Krásné holky v akci (Beautiful Girls in Action, 2004) complements the Miluji installation by rendering it ironic; it is a photo-essay in which Lenka and her friends, Helenka and Lucie, work on this sculpture while dressed as prostitutes. Wearing high heels and workers’ goggles they hammer wedges into monumental stone blocks, move them with a crane and grind at them with a hand grinder. It was as if they were constructing an advertisement for their erotic service. That adds another slightly ticklish dimension to the multivalent outcry “I love,” and the photo-documentation shifts the realization of a sophisticated art work to the level of a student prank. This is not the first time that such self-irony, something that seems to undermine artwork’s seriousness, appears in Lenka’s work.
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From text by Pavlína Morganová

Scenes, 2001. In my imagination, porno-models attempt to balance their immoral vocation with godly work for children. In the stage-set pieces of a children’s puppet theatre they seem lost, uneasy and uncomfortable.*Heavy Industry, 2003. We are in Sweden, in the middle of a mountain that was hollowed out by mining. I miss my mommy. I feel like I am inside of her again. Later I express feeling much more grossly in glossy digital prints: the underground caverns are penetrated by Ostrava industrial chimneys. These are successful international economic contacts.*Autumn Night is Long only by its Name, 2001. Tirelessly and endlessly I cut out paper doilies to cover the naked bodies of prostitutes. As a profession, it is just as rhythmical and endless as theirs.****Living with Handicap, 2001, long-term performance about mermaid life away from the sea*Maids, 2001, painting on magazine, installation from a residence in Čimelice*Place of Pilgrimage, 2001, monumental lettering I LOVE (MILUJI), realization in a public space at Neratovice*Place of Pilgrimage, 2001, monumental lettering I LOVE (MILUJI), realization in a public space at Neratovice*Cared-for, 2001*Giving Birth, 2002, pull the string and a woman gives birth to a baby*Giving Birth, 2002, pull the string and a woman gives birth to a baby*