Jana Kießer

The stone looks like a heart

In 2022 I began to work with my grandmother’s artistic legacy – Elisabeth Kießer (1936-2021), a visual artist and graphic designer who left more than 250 watercolors, sketches, clay sculptures, painted wooden objects, silk scarves and illustrated books.

After Elisabeth’s passing, I discovered similarities between my grandmother‘s paintings and my own photographs. I began to explore the connection between women, nature and art and started to combine my own work with my grandmother’s.

At the Lobe Block I showed two images of the project for the first time. On the rooftop: watercolor poppies by Elisabeth Kießer, ca. 1962, printed on a flag and on the ground a poppy photograph I took in 2022, embedded in the soil and plants of the Lobe Garden beds (the photograph was only installed from August 11-13 as part of the group show Flora & Fauna & curated by Caroline Corleone). The flag will stay on the rooftop for some more weeks, so you can still visit it and even take part in a Yoga class on the rooftop.

The elements of earth and air connect the two images as well as Elisabeth and me. When I took the poppy photograph, I wasn’t yet aware of my grandmother's poppy painting.

You can follow the project on Instagram!

Grandmother & me in the garden, 2017