Regina Maria Moller

Regina Maria Möller reframes familiar everyday forms of contemporary cultural communications. She often teases out the roles such forms might play in shaping individual lives, particularly in relation to female identity. Möller both explores and contradicts the designs of ideal femininity through the process and production of her work, by grounding these ideals in relation to herself as a person.

As part of social systems at Tate St Ives, Möller presents her own production label embodiment, and regina an ongoing project, which takes the form of a magazine. regina is a magazine produced by Möller at the invitation of art institutions and organisations, so far seven issues have been produced with regina in Cornwall being the eight issue. This magazine is an adaptation of the format of mainstream women’s fashion magazine and their notion of women’s everyday life. regina includes the familiar sections – fashion, work, home & garden, recipes, partnership – but the real content of regina is evident in how this everyday notion is dealt with somewhat differently. She challenges the usual content of women’s magazines by shifting the boundaries within these categories and discussing subjects of concern from another perspective.

regina in Cornwall is an exploration of Cornwall that redefines the kind of features normally associated with women’s magazines. The supposed fixed limits of identity and representation which comprise the magazine category “woman” are shed to reveal glimpses of how format, content and method weave together to flesh out a subtle character – regina – who walks between documentary and fiction: a realism produced by the canny convergence of art, comics and everyday life.

Möller founded the embodiment  label in 1994 designing prototypes related to interior design and clothing that address the role of women in society. In limited editions she produces furniture, wallpaper, carpets, accessories and clothing, making a link between art and design on one side, and art and daily life on the other. The prototypes always relate to the artist’s own body measurements and serve as models for the editions. Works made under the label can be worn or used as functional design as well as relating to portraiture or sculpture.

The printed pattern on her nude-coloured wetsuit depicts muscles mutating into curling waves. This powerful motif curls up the thigh to hug the buttock, referring to the fetishistic, sexual associations of the wetsuit.

regina in Cornwall can be purchased directly from ProjectBase, please contact info@projectbase.org.uk

Supported by: Tate St. Ives Members, Henry Moore Foundation, Arts Council England South West.

selected biography

Born Munich, Germany
Lives and works Berlin, Germany

Selected Projects
2005 regina – in Norway, magazine published by Office for Contemporary Art Norway, Director / Curator: Ute Meta Bauer / Christiane Erharter, no. 7, October 2005
2002 regina — Stillleben, magazine published by Kokerei Zollverein, Program Directors: Marius Babias, Florian Waldvogel, no. 6, September. 2002
2000 regina – in Sweden, magazine published by Moderna Museet Projekt Stockholm, Curator: Maria Lind, no. 4, December 2000
2000 regina – Special Issue ifu, magazine published by Internationale Frauenuniversität – ifu (international women’s university), no. 5, December 2000
1998 regina – Special Issue, magazine published by artranspennine98 (Tate Gallery Liverpool and Henry Moore Sculpture Trust) Guest Curator: Iwona Blazwick, no. 3, May
1997 regina – Das Große Frühjahrsheft, magazine published by Kunstverein München, Director: Dirk Snauwaert, no. 2, March 1997
1994 regina – Das Große Herbstheft, Zeitschrift magazine published by Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Artistic Director: Ute Meta Bauer, Prototype / no. 1, October 1994