Nicolas Kerksieck
AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL
March 16, 2013 – April 20, 2013
Kerksieck works with a variety of media and materials. His interventions and manipulations are based on a physical attempt to introduce the viewer to the issue at hand. Originating in sculpture, his installations are where he develops a sensory perception of space and concept.
Wedding music emanates from the inner courtyard and glaring light dazzles visitors to the Ehegraben. The light at the end of the tunnel proves to be a light in the tunnel: Bright and disturbing – perturbing, stripping the festive music of all its romance. Entering the courtyard offers a refuge for the eyes, and the disillusionment of this small, barren space. The end of the tunnel is a dead-end.
The exhibition’s invitation card shows an image of the lamp from Prince William and Duchess Catherine’s wedding carriage; in many ways an edgy, multilayered symbol of light, pomp and rank before love, hope and happiness. On this day, the eyes of almost a billion people perceived William and Catherine as happiness personified, the reality of their beliefs and hopes were almost tangible. What causes people to indulge in such a dream, a utopia far from reality? Since time began, humans have not only experienced moments of happiness in their daily confrontation with finite existence, but also feelings of fear, danger and anguish. Wo(man)’s ideas and actions are determined by attempts to evade these pitfalls. A good deal of everyday life continues to be unclear and diffused, even impermeable: What drives other people? How do they work? How, indeed, does the world work? Much remains shrouded in darkness and hidden from most people; they turn to light in order to flee this daily turmoil. This search for happiness is utopian, the way to light is exactly that: A way, a process that cannot dissipate the pain and despair of our earthly existence, but only lessen it. In much the same way that the coach flickers across the TV screen before disappearing from sight, so the viewer of ‘at the end of the tunnel’ overcomes the dazzling light in order to greet the folly of his/her hopes. The fairytale as a vehicle of hope for one’s own future has a short expiry date. Albert Camus’ maxim ‘the highest form of hope is the overcoming of despair’ seems to be the next light at the end of the tunnel.
Nicolas Kerksieck (*1977) lives and works in Basel and Zurich. He completed his university education with a master of fine arts degree in 2007 after studying under Tony Cragg at Berlin University of the Arts. He graduated with a master’s degree in fine arts from Berlin’s Humboldt University in 2004, before studying at the College of Fine Arts in Sydney. His works have been shown both nationally and internationally, including at Basel’s balzerARTprojects, the Neuwerk Kunsthalle in Constance, the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and the Kunstraum Marks Blond in Bern. He has worked as a lecturer in ‘space and installation’ at the Academy of Art and Design in Basel since 2011. Nicolas Kerksieck is a winner of Neumarkt’s Lothar Fischer Museum’s Lothar Fischer Award.
Wedding music emanates from the inner courtyard and glaring light dazzles visitors to the Ehegraben. The light at the end of the tunnel proves to be a light in the tunnel: Bright and disturbing – perturbing, stripping the festive music of all its romance. Entering the courtyard offers a refuge for the eyes, and the disillusionment of this small, barren space. The end of the tunnel is a dead-end.
The exhibition’s invitation card shows an image of the lamp from Prince William and Duchess Catherine’s wedding carriage; in many ways an edgy, multilayered symbol of light, pomp and rank before love, hope and happiness. On this day, the eyes of almost a billion people perceived William and Catherine as happiness personified, the reality of their beliefs and hopes were almost tangible. What causes people to indulge in such a dream, a utopia far from reality? Since time began, humans have not only experienced moments of happiness in their daily confrontation with finite existence, but also feelings of fear, danger and anguish. Wo(man)’s ideas and actions are determined by attempts to evade these pitfalls. A good deal of everyday life continues to be unclear and diffused, even impermeable: What drives other people? How do they work? How, indeed, does the world work? Much remains shrouded in darkness and hidden from most people; they turn to light in order to flee this daily turmoil. This search for happiness is utopian, the way to light is exactly that: A way, a process that cannot dissipate the pain and despair of our earthly existence, but only lessen it. In much the same way that the coach flickers across the TV screen before disappearing from sight, so the viewer of ‘at the end of the tunnel’ overcomes the dazzling light in order to greet the folly of his/her hopes. The fairytale as a vehicle of hope for one’s own future has a short expiry date. Albert Camus’ maxim ‘the highest form of hope is the overcoming of despair’ seems to be the next light at the end of the tunnel.
Nicolas Kerksieck (*1977) lives and works in Basel and Zurich. He completed his university education with a master of fine arts degree in 2007 after studying under Tony Cragg at Berlin University of the Arts. He graduated with a master’s degree in fine arts from Berlin’s Humboldt University in 2004, before studying at the College of Fine Arts in Sydney. His works have been shown both nationally and internationally, including at Basel’s balzerARTprojects, the Neuwerk Kunsthalle in Constance, the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and the Kunstraum Marks Blond in Bern. He has worked as a lecturer in ‘space and installation’ at the Academy of Art and Design in Basel since 2011. Nicolas Kerksieck is a winner of Neumarkt’s Lothar Fischer Museum’s Lothar Fischer Award.
