Flora Cohen
In August 2009, Flora Cohen, a Columbian artist from Miami, moved into the guest studio. Here she is working on the subject of the human tongue using a wide range of diverse media. Her interest in the most flexible of all human organs lies in the multifaceted functions and roles that are taken on by the tongue.
The tongue as the organ of verbal communication and even as embodiment of language that, at the same time—for example, as a stuck-out tongue—can also serve as a means of nonverbal communication. The tongue in the context of various metaphors that symbolize the different attitudes of people: as forked, brown—or, in Columbian Spanish, as hairy tongue on which the truth gets caught and cannot express itself. The tongue, too, as an organ of desire, of the most direct interpersonal interaction. The tongue, however, also as the organ of taste that reveals the infinite gradations between sweet and bitter.
Such associations form the basis for her graphic, sculptural or bibliophilic word games, which she carries further in her selection of materials. For example, when she forms tongues from a mass that is quite specifically made for our tongues in the form of lollipops, and thus seduces us into to truly wanting to imbibe her art.