Dominika Trapp
Escaping Water, 2022–2024
Escaping Water 6, 2024
ink on canvas, 100 x 80 cm
courtesy of the artist and Dóra Rechnitzer
Escaping Water 7, 2022
ink on antique paper, 24,5 x 16 cm (without frame)
courtesy of the artist and Vivien Marián
Escaping Water 8, 2022
ink on antique paper, 16 cm x 24,5 cm (without frame)
courtesy of the artist, and Dénes Andrea and Árpád Balázs
Through her works, Dominika Trapp mobilises the cultural history of water and connects it to primary existential experiences in a highly natural approach. The works follow the path from the physiology of water to the physiognomy of water. Sources that represent the origin of water cannot be considered true origins: they are not the birthplace of water but merely the place of change in the medium. The origin cannot be the origin of the material; at most, it may represent the origin of form. However, since we are dealing with the formless par excellence, we can only glimpse the origin as a momentary stage of appearance: jugs, holes, springs, cavities, and tunnels – the navel of the world. Across a broad horizon that stretches from the past to the future, the works on display here go beyond one’s sensory experience of them. Like water, they are at once self-controlling and obedient. They appear remarkably ‘natural’ while simultaneously exuding a disturbing foreignness – something we still expect from art but only encounter increasingly rarely. (Imre Bartók)
Escaping Water 8, 2022, ink on antique paper, 16 x 24,5 cm, courtesy of the artist, Dénes Andrea and Árpád Balázs
Dominika Trapp (b. 1988, Budapest) graduated from the painting department of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in 2012. Her practice is characterised by a certain twofold type of interest: on the one hand, a sensitive painterly approach that allows for intuition and introspection; and on the other, an outwardly-directed sensitivity that facilitates dialogues between communities in the service of collective self-knowledge. Through image, installation and performance, Dominika Trapp’s work addresses subjects such as the relationship between tradition and contemporary culture, the fate of women in Hungarian peasant communities, and the historical context of eating disorders. More recently, she has taken part in residency programs at Art in General in New York, the Erste Stiftung in Vienna, and FUTURA in Prague. In 2020, her solo exhibition was staged at Trafó Gallery in Budapest and Karlin Studios in Prague. In 2021, she participated at the 14th Baltic Biennale in Vilnius, in 2022, at Manifesta 14 in Prishtina, and in 2023 at EVA International – Ireland’s Biennial in Limerick. In 2023, she was one of three recipients of the Esterházy Art Award. She is currently a multimedia art fellow at the Doctoral School of the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design.
