Berning is a Berlin-based artist whose practice is largely concerned with the female form, weaving a visual dialogue between female identity and a long history of imposed femininity. With the use of watercolour, collage and sometimes thread, Berning deconstructs existing aesthetic frameworks of women as perceived in the fashion and beauty industries.
The women in Tina’s work are always gracefully depicted, yet their beauty remains imperfect. Figures hover on the page, lacking any context or environment to indicate who these women are. Often, single words like Hide or Undo float in the air above the weightless figures, offering the only narrative. The studied gestures often refer to compulsion and repression. The elegant women usually found on glossy magazines instead appear on yellowed, torn or scrap paper. Berning rescues text books, ledger paper, shopping lists and old record sleeves from flea markets and estate sales to render visible the traces of aging, transience or death.