Dittrich & Schlechtriem is pleased to present a group show titled OTHERING, curated by quest artist Jonas Wendelin and featuring artworks from Analisa Teachworth, Yalda Afsah, Albrecht Dürer, Julian Charriere, Francisco Goya, Andreas Greiner, Jenna Sutela, Jol Thoms, Sung Tieu, and Jonas Wendelin. The exhibition opens on the occasion of Gallery Weekend Berlin 2022, April 29–May 1, 2022. The ten artists explore how certain lives—human and nonhuman—are designated as alien, and the possibilities of forging relationships across the yawning chasm of self and other.

Teachworth, through an investigation of materials and form, these works examine the relationship between the self and other. They explore interspecies connections and the formation of alternative relationships. The paintings prioritize a more measured form and intimate register of storytelling. They employ entirely natural materials, critique modern economic systems, and alter power structures. The paintings employ a classical technique—encaustic painting, in which the materials are hot wax and pigments. Encaustic painting is a historical method of painting from the first century CE; the word encaustic originates from ancient Greek and means “burning in.” All the beeswax used in these works comes from beekeepers in the Brandenburg Berlin area, with whom the artist has formed personal relationships. The works are self-portraits of the artist; the wax, in this sense, is a form of perseveration as it will not decay, sustaining its composition, the body, spirit, and the labor of these others for as long as the paintings exist.

Othering is alterity in the active voice—the often violent process of designating a body as alien, which frequently precedes and accompanies social exclusion. But it is also a necessary precondition for any politics, good or bad. The possibility of hospitality is predicated on the unexpected arrival of a stranger; only by deciding to rename them as my guests can I assume the identity of a welcoming host. Ethics emerge on this threshold: without the other, there is no self.