Connective Tissue
© Sina Muehlbauer
There is an eerie beauty in the spaces between, where the self flickers like a shadow cast by a forgotten light. In these moments of uncertainty, when reality seems both familiar and distant, our Connective tissue becomes most apparent. An intricate, often invisible network of fibers spans the spaces between our thoughts, memories, and perceptions. Threads of flesh, both fragile and resilient.
Connective tissue creates a delicate architecture, holding the shifting boundaries and fragments of identity and self, that bind our muscles, bones, and organs, building the foundation of who we are. They are not static but constantly in flux, embodying the impermanence of existence.
Just as Connective tissue can stretch and adapt to keep the body in balance, so too do these threads of identity bend, break and transform.
It is here, in the dark and quiet tension between presence and absence, that the unseen threads reveal themselves, carrying those shared moments, emotions, and experiences that make up our lives.
Through layers of fragmented imagery and shifting perspectives, “Connecting Tissue“ delves into the complex, often inexplainable nature of these connections, seeking to reveal the delicate nuances within a web that holds us together.
Time flows through the work as a nonlinear force — circular, fragmented, elusive. Suspended arcs. The swing becomes a portal, a moment where gravity loosens and time briefly slips.
Where the body lifts off the ground, personal histories reappear, folding time back on itself - a passed-down dollhouse, my grandmother’s bed sheets. From the suspended arc of a playground swing to the echoes of family photographs. Patterns and fabrics in repetition. Across generations, a loop of beginning and return.
These repetitions are not merely nostalgic; they suggest that identity is built in spirals — always circling, revisiting, and reconfiguring what was.
Poetics of time and space. These connections are not fixed, but alive.
Layered imagery, combined with the deliberate and sparing use of AI-generated montage elements placed unexpectedly, creates work that reimagines the body in motion and dislocation—suggesting that our sense of self is as mutable and fluid as the world around us.
“Connecting Tissue“ gathers the residues of experience, looping memory and imagination, blurring boundaries between past and future, the out- and the inside. In quiet tension these unseen threads reveal themselves — mysterious and tender, holding us together, even as we come undone.
