Operating in a more subtle register than other works by the artist, Renate Bertlmann’s 'Ice Flower' (1992) elevates the role of the kitsch souvenir card to the realm of a high art. Here, a vintage greeting card depicting the image of an early 20th century woman in an ice-skating rink is set within a box frame, adorned with fake snowflakes and a lilac ribbon. The woman’s face has been replaced with Bertlmann’s, a manipulation of the image and a critique of the very idea of the face as a source of identification.

Nostalgic and sickly sweet, Bertlmann dethrones the serious and the stylish, performing a humorous parody of the hierarchical and gendered logic of aesthetic taste.