Tuesday 24 July 2018

SPEED Exhibition VIEW

Photography: Frank Kleinbach, Commissioned by Künstlerhaus Stuttgart


"...Many of the works in the group exhibition were made against a backdrop of apprehension and self-destruction during the Cold War, with its at times uncanny resonances with a present moment. The atmosphere contains an obsessive energy, a recurring fascination with rays, mind altering effects and rituals and the systematic sorting and recording of experience. It is sense of frantic repetition and labour, which van Bender described as ‘Divine Drudgery’, a spirit also present in Bruce Conner’s psychedelic inkblot drawings.

There is an impulse of collaboration that brought about SPEED, one that renders the monologue of anxious speculation into a dialogic practice. The exhibition comprises discrete and individual new works, from Richard’s large-scale video mural Phrasing to Thornton’s cinema installation Cut from Liquid to Snake, and yet all elements have been generated from the third mind of collaboration, a channeling of and at times conscious unsettling of each other’s sensitivities. The basic biographical contrasts between Richards and Thornton are apparent: gender, age and sexuality are all points of difference. What has drawn them together is an inclination they seem to share: that of grabbing charged material, and without apparent judgement or moralising, filling and emptying it. There is an attuned pitch for locating and unsettling any received and comfortable meaning. And at the same time, they produce works with a highly specific sense of the contemporary moment and the urgencies that it presents.

Curated by Fatima Hellberg and James Richards with Matt Fitts

Commissioned by Künstlerhaus Stuttgart and Malmö Konsthall
The second iteration of SPEED takes place at Malmö Konsthall, 15 March – 26 May 2019"


For more information click here:

Wednesday 11 July 2018

C/O Berlin Kinderguide with a work of HORST ADEMEIT

Glimpse on C/O Berlin Kinderguide
(with your kids ;)


"A whir, a click, and just a few seconds later—without darkroom or negative—an instant photo appears in its familiar white frame as if by magic. Although there were Polaroid processes involving negatives, to most people the brand is associated with one-of-a-kind prints, a symbol of the unique, unrepeatable moment being captured. 
The charm of capturing the spontaneous and uncontrived together with the speed of processing made the Polaroid popular among amateurs and professionals alike. World-renowned artists shaped the aesthetic of an era through their use of instant photography. 

There was a palpable joy in experimentation, with cameras ranging from the classic SX-70 to large-format Polaroids that could be used to create abstract images, interior details, street scenes, landscapes, still-lifes, and portraits. Pop artist Andy Warhol’s affinity to the Polaroid should come as no surprise: the instant photo was ideally suited to the ephemeral worlds of consumer culture and fashion that he moved in and that he himself helped to define. 

Whereas Richard Hamilton retouched his painterly Polaroids, Dennis Hopper used the Polaroid to research his films—for example in the series, Colors, in which he documented the graffiti and street art scene in Los Angeles in the 1980s. Artists Anna and Bernhard Blume used instant photos not as individual snapshots but often as part of larger series of performative artist self-portraits. In its Artist Support Program, Polaroid furthered the work of many artists by equipping them with cameras and film..."

Monday 9 July 2018

Feature with Jesuys Crystiano in Weekend Edition of SZ



"Die Entdeckung eines Künstlers: Der Brasilianer Jesuys Crystiano lebte lange auf der Straße. Seine ausdrucksvollen und eigensinnigen Zeichnungen prangen auf Mauern und Hauswänden. Jetzt wird sein Nachlass aufgearbeitet."