Pryle Behrmann

Article in Art Monthly, No 258, UK, London, 2002

“…Johanna Oenicke’s video works re-present well-known paintings, transposing them into a new medium in order to examine different facets of the central characters and the situation they inhabit.

Rest on the flight, 2001, shows a three-dimensional recreation of Lucas Cranach the Elder’s painting of the same name. (…) It may sound rather far-fetched, given that Oenicke is using Plasticine figures in a roughly modelled landscape, but she succeeds in evocatively portraying the emotions of people fleeing for their lives.

Wheras the Holy Family in Cranach’s painting is depicted reposing calmly amid a host of attentive putti, the protagonists in Oenicke’s drama wander alone and fearful. In one moment of terndess, Joseph stoops a gently kiss Mary on the forehead, but the respite is fleeting, and a melancholic soundtrack adds to a pervading sense of impending disaster.”