Gabi Trinkaus superb collages, created by clippings from fashion magazines, raise questions about idealized media imagery of beauty, and of identity in today’s society. The artist uses mass media’s own poses and image conventions in her work. The raw material is clippings from fashion magazines and the result is often, from a distance, beautiful portraits of wonderfully handsome men and women. Trinkaus deconstructs and reconstructs, she cuts the magazine pictures and shakes them up. At a closer look, the men and women are not so handsome; an eyebrow appears to be formed by lipsticks, nails and logotypes, a nose consists of hair and women’s legs. With Gabi Trinkaus’ own words:
“Ironically enough, more than of “surviving” our culture seems to rouse questions of “succeeding”. The print media provides innumerable pages with answers how this might look; I tear them out and cut them up and shake the bag.”