Hürst Maja (CHE)
Seed egg bird tree / Subway by Ejpovice tunnel / WALLZ 22
Swiss artist Maja Hürst has been painting since 1998 and now works alternately in Berlin and Zurich. For a long time, she has been engaged in the creation of illustrations and murals referring to simple areal representation of Egyptian hieroglyphs, which she transforms into stylization of mainly animal and natural motifs. She often depicts geometrically abstracted animals or people with typically flattened faces and broad noses. Her style is also influenced by South American folk art and Indian myths. Maja essentially works without preparatory sketches, her site-specific painting is a spontaneous improvisation closely connected to the effect of each place, its surroundings, passers-by and the artist‘s current mood.
Through her work, Maja searches for a distinctive visual language based on the subtlest essencesof the given place in connection with her own thoughts. Very simple, graphic, sometimes figurative, sometimes abstract shapes are created. In Pilsen, a location was waiting for her at a recreational place under a railway tunnel, where peopleride bikes, walk, relax. Influenced by the green colour of the metal elements of the bridge, the corn and poppy fields and the vicinity of Berounka River, Maja created a four-volume work in the subway depicting the essence of this place - a Seed, an Egg, a Bird and a Tree. The painting therefore refers to the absolutely basic things of humans and the universe and shows the endless cycle of growth and decay.