Artists

Eric Meier

Press release

Eyes, it is said, are the window to the soul. They have the ability to reflect lies, humour, pain and joy. If you look into the eyes of the people portrayed by Eric Meier, pale faces return your gaze, tired and empty. They bear witness to a long-overlooked fate in the history of East German transformation after reunification. With his „Vaterland“ (Fatherland) series of works, which shows men from a residential centre for alcoholics in Eisenhüttenstadt, the artist, who was born in East Berlin and grew up in Frankfurt an der Oder, undertakes a memorable and touching contemplation of this history, giving new visibility to people forgotten by society.

In doing so, he focuses his gaze on what many might turn away from. Like an archaeologist, he uncovers the traces that the fall of the Wall and the accompanying changes left on people and cities in all their ambivalence. The resulting images of the alcoholic men are distinctly unembellished and honest. Every part of their bodies is ruthlessly scrutinised, the gaze directed at legs marked by scars, necks stained by sweat and hands shaped by work. With their backs bent by the weight of the past, the subjects hang limply in their chairs, their posture appearing as a grotesque quotation of a long-lost pose of masculinity. What once stood for strength and self-confidence now reveals an irrepressible vulnerability in its brokenness.