CONJUNCTION
Fabric, metal
150 x 100 cm
2024
This work is part of the series Solutio
Born from research developed during the GlogauAir Berlin 2024 Residency, this series explores the complexity of female identity in tension with social norms and technological advancement. Using her own worn clothing as primary material — garments charged with lived experience — Englebert builds a visual language that probes the layers of social conditioning and subjectivity that shape the contemporary female psyche.
In "Conjunction", the artist explores the metaphor of self-construction through identity, using different parts of her dismantled garments to design a new morphology. The various textures, layers, and overlaps within the composition symbolize the multiple facets and depths of identity.
In this work, the artist incorporates an element and process she has previously used in another series: the analysis and recording of her brain waves. Using a device that measures brain waves, she recorded her own while unsewing her garments. This action is inspired by Virginia Woolf and her quote: "No lock, no bolt, no barrier can imprison the freedom of my mind." By unsewing her clothes, the artist seeks to symbolize the deconstruction of an identity shaped by societal mandates, while simultaneously reflecting on the nature of identity itself.
The artist's brain waves were incorporated into the piece in golden metal to represent her unexpressed thoughts and sensations. This element offers an intimate glimpse into her mind, while the metal, combined with fabric, symbolizes the strength and resilience of the female spirit.
For Carl Jung, conjunction in alchemy held profound psychological and symbolic meaning. In the context of his interpretation of alchemy as a metaphor for the process of individuation, conjunction represents the union of opposites and the integration of different aspects of the psyche.
Conjunction marks a key point in the individuation process, which is the path toward personal realization and wholeness. Psychologically, it involves the integration of opposites within the self, such as the conscious ego with the unconscious, or the integration of the shadow (repressed aspects of the self) with the conscious identity. This stage is seen as a step toward wholeness and inner balance.
"Conjunction" in the exhibition "La advocación de los metales" at the Olivares Group Gallery, Buenos Aires, September 2024.
"Conjunction" next to "Untitled (Jacquard)" and "Threads of Identity" at Capital Feria, Córdoba, Argentina, March 2026