Veronika SUSCHNIG, 2022 Pain Poem - It's time to build something that has a heart... Pain Poem - It's time to build something that has a heart...

This work is from the “Pain Poems” series, in which Veronika Suschnig engages with questions of the ‘contemporary psyche’. Referencing developments in recent years, she created a series of works consisting text pieces ‘written’ with the help of rose thorns. The text fragments point to social fragility and psychological alienation. The “Pain Poems” address mental health issues, with Suschnig artistically staging text fragments from exchanges where communication has broken down, using rose thorns as textual colour and a means of expression. They become synonymous with human pain, as well as with the affection that can help counter it. Thousands upon thousands of thorns are arranged on the paper with great precision, functioning as an extraordinary organic, fragile yet robust design element. The thorns are placed in context via the fragments of thoughts and the sheer number of punctures in the surface creates a larger picture of vulnerable humanity. The anonymity of the fragmentary thoughts and texts, not voiced by a specific narrator, seeks to create an empathetic connection between the viewers and the work.