Ellen Möckel

Lives and works in Berlin, Germany

Artist statement

At the center of my artistic practice is an interest in how meaning is created, transformed, and shifted through context. My work begins with a personal image archive, which I organize according to the original meanings and designations of the images I collect. The archive functions as a personal system of order: it preserves images within their original contexts while also revealing how closely meaning is tied to naming, classification, and context. I take individual forms and fragments from this archive, deconstruct them, and recombine them to create new images. Through this process, the original meaning of a form remains perceptible, but gradually becomes less important as it enters a new context. The forms retain traces of what they once represented, while their new surroundings allow them to take on different relationships and meanings. Meaning is not erased, but displaced. I am interested in this space between recognition and estrangement—the moment when something feels familiar but can no longer be clearly identified or assigned. A fragment can lose its original function and assume a different role within a new pictorial space. Existing structures thus become the starting point for new relationships, readings, and possibilities. The grid and other forms of order are important tools within this process. They provide orientation and establish a framework, but they are never completely closed. Through repetition, fragmentation, displacement, and recombination,...

Artwork