Slime Studies

Opera

A painting is created

It's not just children who love slime, it's also an internet phenomenon. Millions of people watch videos in which shiny, viscous masses are kneaded, pulled or squashed - often as a relaxing "ASMR moment". Artist Anik Lazar takes this phenomenon as the starting point for her paintings. For her Slime Studies, she photographs toy slime, intelligent plasticine and other soft materials - kneaded, thrown or pressed against walls. She then transfers forms that in reality only exist for seconds into carefully painted pictures. In this way, fleeting movements become permanent, almost physical forms on the canvas. The rosy, shiny shapes are also reminiscent of skin, cosmetics or technical materials. Lazar is interested in how such materials oscillate between the body, technology and consumer culture - from children's toys to wellness trends. A digital trend thus gives rise to images that appear surprisingly calm and permanent. For the duration of the "Mannheimer Sommer", artist Anik Lazar will move her studio to the festival grounds and paint her largest picture to date from the SLIME STUDIES series on a canvas stretched across the OPAL building. Here you can observe how a picture is created from day to day.