Artist’s Statement

I have been interested in the idea of happiness and have explored it in my previous work. Happiness is on the one hand an ineffable aspiration, and on the other hand the promise of advertising, claiming that the possession of product X will reward one with happiness. What I consider to be real happiness is a fleeting moment that is very difficult to grasp. I often wonder if there is overlap between these two versions of happiness, the ethereal and the material. Is there a happiness that can be grasped, but cannot be sold?

I have been looking for a way to make the intangible kind of happiness palpable. This led me to an interest in people who consider themselves to be in a happy relationship and what they identify as the signs of that feeling. There are so many resources available giving advice about how to be in a good relationship, as this is one of the major ideals of our culture. But I am more interested in whether or not there is something sort of essential about happy couples, and if the couples and I can isolate this essence together and capture it on film.

What I've noticed in my preliminary interviews with couple is that they all have a dearly held narrative of how they met and about certain key moments in their relationship. And this is a very sweet and telling performance that they give together, recounting these moments. I am planning to take this as the departure point for the film.

Bio

Julika Rudelius was born in Cologne, Germany in 1968. After a career in publishing, she studied photography at the Rietveld Academy followed by a residency at the Rijksakademie van beeldenden kunsten in Amsterdam in 1999-2000 and the ISCP program in New York in 2006. Working primarily in video, her work has been internationally exhibited, including solo shows at the Swiss Institute of Contemporary Art, New York; Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris; Stedelijk Museum Bureau, Amsterdam; and at the Westfallian Institute of Contemporary Art, Münster. Her work has also been shown in group exhibitions at the Tate Modern, London; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; ZKM, Karlsruhe; Brooklyn Museum, New York; MOCA North Miami, Miami, the ICP Triennial 2009, International Center of Photography, New York; The 2009 International Incheon Women Artists’ Biennial, Korea; and Heartland at the Smart Museum, Chicago. Rudelius was recently featured on the cover of Art Papers and her recent solo show entitled Soft Intrusion at Ursula Blickle Stiftung in Kraichtal, Germany was accompanied by a catalogue of the same name which is available now at Sternberg Press, Berlin. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. 

Artist’s Links

artist’s website:   www.rudelius.org          

gallery links:    http://reinhardhauff.de