Group show
AUS GUTEM HAUSE
November 15, 2014 – December 27, 2014
Erika Babatz
How a group show turned into a trilogy.
For the inauguration of the new premises widmertheodoridis wished to present the program and the focus of the gallery in one exhibition. But after all it was not the plan to have three so closely related shows. ‘Aus gutem Stoff’, ‘Aus gutem Grund’ and ‘Aus gutem Haus’ (made of good stuff, with good reason, from a good house) illuminate questions that deal with our existence: Who am I, what am I made of, what is power, wealth, property? Where am I coming from? What is the meaning of my origin? The last part of the trilogy offers again the possibility to explore the subject and to highlight it from another perspective.
Erna Hürzeler takes the hay barn with her installation ‘Grazien’ which has just been completed. For almost one year she was acquiring from 88 women plaster impressions that now give a spatial view into a woman’s tummy or/and womb. Some of the tummies and hips are more delicate, firm, round, slim or full then others and present impressively the creativeness and potential of transformation of nature. The power of creation also appears in Lars Theuerkauff’s latest works of art. He manages to capture the fascinating energy of the sea onto the canvas with his sole fingers or wooden rods without using a brush. Created out of water, grown in water and made of water. Water is the most existential element for humans. How valuable and essential water is one can observe in Othmar Eder’s slow camera movement in a cistern.
Humans need a home. It doesn’t need to be a house. Most of the times very little will do, too. A home on wheels such as the VW-Bus used to be the epitome of independency and freedom. Scanderbeg Sauer display what it looks like when even this little is gone. Sometimes also memories can convey a feeling of security. Simone Kappeler’s vulnerable polaroids shed some light on a private home. While Georgette Maag’s camera leads to intimate but besides that irrelevant scenes. A superb private glance on resting hands is given by Josep Tornero. Another unspectacular secondary stage is lit up by Erika Babatz: Mattresses that once were home to dreams, love and life are being now carelessly thrown away. Reminiscences of family photo albums are brought back by Chiara Fiorini’s found photographies.
Where do we imagine home? Where are we intellectually, culturally rooted and at home? Michael Schnabel presents good houses by night. His views of museums outside opening hours don’t reveal what these good houses contain but what secrets they might preserve. The 80’s book ‘The Aesthetics of Disappearance’ introduced Paul Virilio’s understanding of picnolepsy - the epileptic state of consciousness produced by speed. Guido von Stürler photographs refer directly to these ideas. Objects sometimes reveal the social status of its owner. Such as Elisabeth Nembrini’s cropped cap from a Renaissance portrait.
Not from a good house is Werner Widmer’s installation. Speaking without words and yet unmistakably: the red light signals the path towards lust and love, but also sin. An orgy disappears in Lisa Sartorio’s work: she mirrors and multiplies the image until it’s merged in a graphic pattern. First they look frivolous but that is merely a facade, Nadine Wottke’s bluntly naked bone china figures are a metaphor of the hidden inside. From good home is the material that Stefan Gort used in his installation ‘Fliessen’. Larch wood is one of the hardest and heaviest coniferous woods and for good reason, this was also used for the facade of the gallery.
For the inauguration of the new premises widmertheodoridis wished to present the program and the focus of the gallery in one exhibition. But after all it was not the plan to have three so closely related shows. ‘Aus gutem Stoff’, ‘Aus gutem Grund’ and ‘Aus gutem Haus’ (made of good stuff, with good reason, from a good house) illuminate questions that deal with our existence: Who am I, what am I made of, what is power, wealth, property? Where am I coming from? What is the meaning of my origin? The last part of the trilogy offers again the possibility to explore the subject and to highlight it from another perspective.
Erna Hürzeler takes the hay barn with her installation ‘Grazien’ which has just been completed. For almost one year she was acquiring from 88 women plaster impressions that now give a spatial view into a woman’s tummy or/and womb. Some of the tummies and hips are more delicate, firm, round, slim or full then others and present impressively the creativeness and potential of transformation of nature. The power of creation also appears in Lars Theuerkauff’s latest works of art. He manages to capture the fascinating energy of the sea onto the canvas with his sole fingers or wooden rods without using a brush. Created out of water, grown in water and made of water. Water is the most existential element for humans. How valuable and essential water is one can observe in Othmar Eder’s slow camera movement in a cistern.
Humans need a home. It doesn’t need to be a house. Most of the times very little will do, too. A home on wheels such as the VW-Bus used to be the epitome of independency and freedom. Scanderbeg Sauer display what it looks like when even this little is gone. Sometimes also memories can convey a feeling of security. Simone Kappeler’s vulnerable polaroids shed some light on a private home. While Georgette Maag’s camera leads to intimate but besides that irrelevant scenes. A superb private glance on resting hands is given by Josep Tornero. Another unspectacular secondary stage is lit up by Erika Babatz: Mattresses that once were home to dreams, love and life are being now carelessly thrown away. Reminiscences of family photo albums are brought back by Chiara Fiorini’s found photographies.
Where do we imagine home? Where are we intellectually, culturally rooted and at home? Michael Schnabel presents good houses by night. His views of museums outside opening hours don’t reveal what these good houses contain but what secrets they might preserve. The 80’s book ‘The Aesthetics of Disappearance’ introduced Paul Virilio’s understanding of picnolepsy - the epileptic state of consciousness produced by speed. Guido von Stürler photographs refer directly to these ideas. Objects sometimes reveal the social status of its owner. Such as Elisabeth Nembrini’s cropped cap from a Renaissance portrait.
Not from a good house is Werner Widmer’s installation. Speaking without words and yet unmistakably: the red light signals the path towards lust and love, but also sin. An orgy disappears in Lisa Sartorio’s work: she mirrors and multiplies the image until it’s merged in a graphic pattern. First they look frivolous but that is merely a facade, Nadine Wottke’s bluntly naked bone china figures are a metaphor of the hidden inside. From good home is the material that Stefan Gort used in his installation ‘Fliessen’. Larch wood is one of the hardest and heaviest coniferous woods and for good reason, this was also used for the facade of the gallery.