RE-MADE // RE-USED
Marie Arleth Skov2013, REH Kunst, Berlin
The group exhibition RE-MADE // RE-USED traces the transformation from trash, everyday articles, or industrial materials to art work. The shown works are all created from materials or objects which were originally made for another purpose or existed in an art-unrelated context. The exhibited artworks are less Ready-Mades in the sense of Duchamp, but rather Re-Mades – artifacts taken from their origin context and completely reconstructed by the artists. The participating artists show different approaches and positions in regard to the motif of reutilization. Often the artists draw on their immediate surroundings and incorporate elements of their everyday reality, with the accessibility of materials making out a not unimportant aspect. Among the applied artistic strategies are the re-contextualization of used or thrown-away items as well as the aestheticizing reinterpretation of everyday objects. For the exhibition, Surya Gied (b.1980) has created a room-specific floor installation (Fountain Wall, 2013) which is put together from reused surfaces, such as frames, aluminum grids, clamping plates,, and painted canvases. In her work, Gied assembles these found elements to a new construct, which she then glues and spray paints. The result is a geometric, dynamic montage which relates to the lines and planes of the exhibition space. In her work Yet Untitled Mirrored Sculpture 1 (2013), Madeline Stillwell (b.1978) arranges cut photographs of found construction materials atop a surface of broken mirrors, raw clay, and ceramic forms which are abstractions of the images in the photographs. The dimensionality of the REH Kunst space is reflected in the mirror fragments of these trashy tableaux. Christian Henkel (b.1976) also works with found construction materials, such as carved and painted wood, porcelain and old metal pieces, in his work I Am A Designer (2012). In spite of its functionless fantasy shape, this strange, playful assemblage of found elements evokes the notion of a purpose of use. In the merged reconstruction, innovation and tradition blend. Here, the reutilization has an element of craftsmanship to it, which takes the original purpose of the material into consideration. In each their own way, Surya Gied, Christian Henkel and Madeleine Stillwell all work with aspects of fragmentation. Compared to this, one can find a sublimation of everyday objects and natural elements in the artworks by Lars Bjerre, Philipp Ricklefs and Moritz Hirsch. Lars Bjerre (b. 1975) exhibits an installation of nine mundane plungers (Pümpel, Svupper, Plummer, 2013) which, perfectly neatly beaded and clad in drawing, fine-tuned color combinations, become objects of desire. Wrapped in thick yarn, the plungers are utterly useless. In a sort of appropriation of everyday life, they are instead staged as works of art. The approach of Philipp Ricklefs (b. 1981) is similarly ironic. In his work, tater system (2010), the potatoes are no longer organic or edible – they are neodymium magnets, embedded in fibreglass-reinforced synthetics, coated with 2k-varnish. From an iconographic point of view, they are closer to a high-tech scientific experiment than a natural product. The work Standby (2010) by Moritz Hirsch (b. 1978) is also comprised of materials commonly used for structural design; steel panels, phosphorescent paint, and packing materials. Here, these materials gain the qualities of a classical sculpture; sober elegance, silvery-shimmering surface and severity dominate the work. A third category of reutilization is chosen by artist Marija Stanković (b. 1980) who grew up in Belgrade. In her paper work, Filling the Form (2011-2012) she has filled out old, found printed forms from the former Yugoslavia with color fields. As required, the forms are neatly completed – but instead of the inquired data, the boxes are filled in with pastel color and graphite. This way of re-contextualizing visualizes the question of the consequences of social and bureaucratic forms – through the artistic reutilization, the absurdity is displayed and the system is scrutinized. The exhibition space itself – the GDR Raumerweiterungshalle (REH, literally, space-extending building) – is a construction originally made for another purpose and context, which is now being re-used as an art and project space. REH refers to a modular architectonic system whose individual elements can be telescopically extended to form a multi-functional space that remains transportable despite its solid roof, floor, and walls. The REH was a part of everyday life in East Germany and long helped shape its architectural landscape.