Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house in

Solo exhibition by Sophia Süßmilch as part of the annual theme "Children, listen up everyone!" at the Kunsthalle Osnabrück

Then I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house in means: "I'll cough and snort and blow your house away". This sentence comes from the fairy tale The Three Little Pigs.

The artist Sophia Süßmilch makes many different types of art. She uses many different methods. She paints, makes sculptures and performances, but also textile, photo and video works. [Performance art is an artistic presentation. A performance. On a stage or in a museum]. In her art, Sophia Süßmilch deals with the really big questions of human history: Why are we in the world? What makes us human? Or: What is love? What does morality mean? Sophia Süßmilch tackles these questions with a great deal of humour. In her very own, playful way and in her own language. Her art shows viewers the contradictions of social norms and rules. Her art can touch or repel.

Sophia Süßmilch has developed a solo exhibition and a performance for the nave of the Kunsthalle Osnabrück. The performance was shown at the opening of the exhibition. The exhibition shows sculptures, drawings, photography and textiles. [The artworks are sensually accompanied by music. The music was written especially for this exhibition. The lyrics were written by Sophia Süßmilch. The lyrics and the visual language of the exhibition are reminiscent of classic fairy tales. The drawings in the church, for example, show scenes that could have come from fairy tales. In fairy tales, you always know for sure: who is good and who is bad? You are supposed to learn from them how to behave well and correctly. But this exhibition shows that it's not that simple. Who actually decides what is good and right? The song lyrics are sung from the perspective of cannibals. [Cannibals eat human flesh] They eat children. Like the witch in the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel. But the cannibals in Sophia Süßmilch's texts also love their children. They want to devour them and protect them in their bellies from the evil in the world. The cannibals are therefore good and evil at the same time.

The three guinea pigs that live in the exhibition also tell of the in-between: In some countries they are kept as pets, in others as farm animals. This means that their meat is eaten. This shows that some rules in our society are not as fixed as they seem. They are culturally shaped. In other words, they are not innate, but also acquired. Various guinea pig recipes in the exhibition also remind us of this. They hang above on the walls of the nave and can only be read with binoculars.

With the exhibition and the performance, Sophia Süßmilch questions the special relationship between "child" and "mother". And she questions the role that people capable of giving birth have in our society. [Childbearing means that these people can give birth to children. Because they have a uterus]. In the performance, she also talks about this with her own mother. Even today, our view of parenthood is still characterised by a male gaze. This means that people with wombs should primarily give birth to children. And to look after them. That is the ideal. Sophia Süßmilch demystifies this ideal. She takes a fictitious, eerily fairytale-like picture of the future to its logical conclusion. [Fictitious means: the artist has made it up. The story is not set in reality]. In this future, people resist. They no longer want to be birthing machines. Right down to the last consequence: what would happen if people capable of giving birth decided together: We will no longer bear children? We refuse?

The title of the exhibition also tells of the male gaze that determines our idea of parenthood and family: Then I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house in is a quote from the fairy tale The Three Little Pigs. In the fairy tale, the wolf wants to eat the three little pigs. The three guinea pigs in the exhibition are a reminder of this. The same quote is also used in the horror film The Shining by Stanley Kubrick. In this story, a man tries to kill his family. In both stories, the wolf and the man fail. They are unable to realise their plans. They have underestimated the strength of the seemingly weaker ones. They felt too superior. This shows: We can defend ourselves against the seemingly stronger ones.

The performance took place only once on 15 June 2024 in the Kunsthalle Osnabrück. The performance is part of the exhibition. In the performance, the exhibition was opened in front of the visitors. You can view the documentation of the performance in the Kunsthalle.

The exhibition and performance deal with topics that can provoke strong emotions and memories, such as domestic violence, miscarriages and childlessness. The performers will also appear naked. We would like to inform our visitors transparently about this. A visit to the exhibition and Sophia Süßmilch's performance cannot be categorised as suitable for children. We therefore recommend an age rating of 16 years and above. Visitors are responsible for making their own and their parents' decisions. Childcare was offered at a distance during the opening performance. An awareness team was also available.

Sophia Süßmilch (DE) lives and works in Munich, Berlin and Vienna. The artist's most recent solo exhibitions included the Francisco Carolinum. Landes Museum, Linz (2023), for which a comprehensive publication was published by DISTANZ Verlag in 2024, at the G2 Kunsthalle, Leipzig (2023), at MARTINEZ, Cologne (2022 and 2020), at Russi Klenner, Berlin (2021) and at Belvedere 21, Vienna (2018). Süßmilch has also participated in major group exhibitions at Ludwig Forum Aachen (2021), Kunstpalast Düsseldorf (2020) and Kunstforum Wien (2020), among others. Sophia Süßmilch is the winner of the City of Munich's Visual Arts Promotion Prize (2020) and the Bavarian Art Promotion Prize (2018). She received the Marianne Defet Painting Scholarship (2022-2023) and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Study Scholarship in the USA (2011).

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