Little big ouchies: Jody Korbach slaps (bandaids on hurt) German pride
To better deal with feelings of offense, aggression, and rage, Jody (Millennial, German) prescribes some art. And maybe catching these hands.
The first thing I saw approaching the unassuming white NAK building cozily embedded into Aachen’s Kurgarten was a phrase in bold capitalized red letters: BESSER TOT ALS ROT [Better dead than red]. A German right-wing motto proposing death over socialism or any form of leftist politics. If Jody is an expert in something, it’s provocation. The leftist Antifa was quick to spray graffiti on top. As they should, Jody said.
Call an ambulance, but not for me
What happens to pent-up rage if you leave it to boil for long enough? What if you could unleash it, if only in your fantasy? Is violence legitimized by the cause? Is it ok if it’s against the bad guys? If I googled all these questions, my FBI agent would get quite concerned for me. We can talk it out. But I wanna punch you in your stupid face. Good timing with the new Hunger Games prequel. But maybe it doesn’t even matter.
As I’m entering, my feet stand on a (once) white doormat with the good old red German pharmacy logo on it. And a small frowning smiley face. This is fine. The windows in this first room are fully wallpapered as if I inconveniently walked into a full-on renovation (in fact, the staff was busy with preparations but that’s just a coincidence), the translucent light gives off a slightly churchy vibe.
Jody chose an enormous palette of pictures that are funny, disturbing, or both. The pharmacy logo, again, police violence, MAGA rallies in the US, social media posts, highlighted text passages, memes, guns, blood, politicians, Gothic letters, eagles (German style, not the freedom ones), Google Image results of Tom Cruise apparently getting cast to play Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, the Nazi officer who attempted to kill Hitler (Tom Cruise simply lacks coolness, says Welt Magazine). Pictures of people holding up posters: Day X as a hostage of the RAF, GEZ, FDP, this reality, this waiting loop.
All I want is healing
Another pharmacy logo. This time as a lamp. Part of the letter was broken off and glued back with golden hot melt glue. It’s giving Japanese wabi-sabi philosophy. Kintsugi (2023) uses a Japanese clay repair technique. Jody patched Mit beiden Beinen auf dem Boden der Freiheitlichen Demokratischen Grundordnung stehen [Standing with both feet on the ground of the Free Democratic Basic Order] (2023), another pharmacy sign upstairs with bandages. Everybody keeps asking what’s up, Doc, but nobody ever asks how’s Doc.
Two watercolors play with the Bugs Bunny version of Richard Wagner’s opera The Ring of the Nibelung. Written by passionate Nationalist Antisemite Richie, it had a huge impact on German pride and national myths. In the cartoon, the wagnerified hunter chasing after Bugs has mistaken the rabbit for his beloved Brunhilde. Finding out the truth, he kills Bugs but regrets his choice. From rage to despair, from sadness to anger, this little man goes through a lot of emotions. He holds his prey gazing up to the sky against outlined Germany. In the other version, he rams his spear into the ground. A lime leaf lies next to him. A go-to of Nazi symbolism right under the number one, oak trees.
Save your tears for another day
Jody already took Cry me a river (2023) off the market for a good heading so I gotta work with The Weeknd. This whole show started with German actor Lars Eidinger (Gen X) tearing up at a film press conference in 2020. That whole situation was weird. It was a press conference for Persian Lessons (2020) he starred as a Nazi officer. A few weeks earlier, he posed with a luxury bag in front of homeless people. He pulled a Jaden Smith on camera as he was concerned for the political and economic state of the world right now. But primarily hate. Jody made him look much older, with no hair filled in, I could have sworn he’s a politician. Well, what if not self-dramatization do politicians and actors have in common?
Jody transformed many media images into watercolors. Tod der Mitte [Death of the Center] (2023) is a painting of an idyllic German suburban home. If you’re German, you know it’s the house of Walter Lübcke (1953-2019), a centrist politician shot right in the safety of his walls by an extremist. He advocated in favor of supporting refugees and migrants. When he was killed in 2019, pictures of his house were all over the internet. I think I’ve seen them more often than him.
With O.T. (2022) Jody made another watercolor of an iconic photograph from 2015: Chancellor Angela Merkel comforting a fully integrated Palestinian girl who was soon to be deported. A campaign helped her stay. The notorious BILD newspaper has suddenly brought her back to media attention with the current war in the Middle East.
The mascot from the beloved Sendung mit der Maus waves at an imagined audience walking hand in hand with… idk who that is, prolly someone important. The only one without inherited guilt in Germany is the mouse (2022) layers the idea of the Biblical original sin of Adam and Eve with the guilt of the German people after the Shoah. The mouse is safe, thank God. It reminds me of Banksy’s Napalm (2004), a reinterpretation of a photograph from the Vietnam War: Ronald MacDonald and a Mickey Mouse mascot holding a naked Vietnamese girl by her hand as she is crying over her chemically burnt skin.
While her last show in Cologne focused more on German culture, Jody wrestles with politics and her own position this time. How radical do you need to be to make a change? How far do you have to go? And maybe, a lot of what we think of as radical is just a teenage rebel phase that has nothing to do with the world out there. Jody writes out her bloodthirsty fantasies. Beating the living shit out of someone. Squaring up. Swinging. Anything to put an end to this madness. If only there was a way to find healing.
Took some pharmacy mints out the jar at Jody Korbach: Fine People on Both Sides, and Me. from October 14 until December 2, 2023, at NAK Neuer Aachener Kunstverein.
NAK Neuer Aachener Kunstverein
Passstraße 29
52070 Aachen
Website
Never looking at pharmacies the same again? Share your thoughts in the comments or leave me a like if you’re up for it. Thank you for reading these silly reviews, I hope you enjoy them. And let a friend enjoy them, too :)
See you soon!!!
Jennifer
The Gen Z Art Critic