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Descent Into Matter,
2006-2007
morceau d'affiche publicitaire retravaillée
reworked advertisement poster fragments
125 x 185 cm
Defragmentation,
2006-2007
morceau d'affiche publicitaire retravaillée
reworked advertisement poster fragments
125 x 185 cm
Descend Into Matter
/ Defragmentation
Advertisement is dominating public spaces in cities all over the world
to an extent previously unimaginable. In defragmentation this logic
of appropriation and privatization is applied on advertisement itself.
Billboard poster fragments are stripped it off their product oriented
logic and reworked to propose a reality which doesn’t try to sell
anything at all.
In the first group of works letters of texts in advertisement posters
are being cut out and glued on the backside of the posters to form a
new text. The result is a blue plane with holes whose shapes correspond
with the cut out letters (often of different colors and fonts) glued
on top which is somewhat reminiscent of a blackmailing letter of the
pre-pc age blown out of proportion.
“Descend into Matter” is the first of a series of propositions
for simple but contemplative actions of no inherent importance. The
phrase of this poster, which is at the same time the title for the whole
series, is inspired by H. P. Blavatsky´s “The Secret Doctrine”,
the founder of Theosophy, who became quite popular at the turn of the
20th century not least amongst modernist artists like Kandinsky or Mondrian.
The book, arguably one of the first attempts in modern age to reconcile
modern science with metaphysics, describes the evolution of the cosmos
as an ever repeating cycle of a descent of spirit into matter and re-ascent
into pure nothingness or be-ness. Imbedded in the commercial advertisement
background the creation of the phrase has undergone a similar transformation
process of dissolution and (re)appearance.
In the second group (“Defragmentation”) the advertisement
posters used contain neither product nor the accompanying text, only
the surrounding visual information which is reworked by means of simple
cut-outs, collages etc. The result describes a research into the visual
codes of advertisement not only as the common denominator of the zeitgeist
but of the underlying ideological currents on which it is based. Above
all however it is the attempt to give its streamlined perfection a more
humane edge, which is where both work cycles meet.
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Vaisseau / Container,
2007
white plastic bag filled with water
30 x 35 x 5 cm
Vaisseau / Container
Years ago I saw a white plastic bag that the wind had blown into the
branches of a large tree. It had been halfway filled with water from
the rain in which, judging from its colour, a microcosm of organisms
had started to develop. A space colony.
In Container this evolutionary aspect is left out to allow for a more
subtle reading in a neutral surrounding. When looking at the object
there is something definite about its simplicity, with its white colour
almost blending in with the wall. Yet there is also something very fragile
and elusive in the construction, not least due to the fact that the
function of a plastic bag is by nature transitory.
This strange balance carries on when thinking about the connection of
the two materials. There is a dialectic between the natural and the
artificial. But then plastic is actually made almost entirely out of
oil, which on its part is the result of a few million years lasting
compression of remains of prehistoric zooplankton and algae which have
been settled to the sea (or lake) bottom in large quantities under anoxic
conditions. From this perspective present day water is surrounded by
the remains of ancient water organisms. There are many other references
that come to mind when looking at this reduced relationship of vessel
and liquid (economical, ecological, environmental, biological, or even
mystical) and a white plastic bag filled with water in a white cube
(named “Air de Paris”) may be something else altogether.
To me personally the work functions more on a non- or maybe preverbal
level which is possibly owed to this very elusiveness of form and content.
A Story of Wall Street,
2007
9 affiches publicitaires
9 Advertisement posters
270 x 360 cm
vue de l'exposition "Le syndrome de Broadway", centre d'art
du Parc Saint-Léger
A Story of Wall Street
The work consists of 9 fragments
of billboard advertisement glued to the wall to one solid block (3 x
3) with the advertising side facing the wall, so that only the blue
backsides with their small numbers (1-9), which serve as an orientation
for correct placement, are visible. The posters are arranged in a way
that the numbers on the backsides form a magic square which is a mathematical
order that is characterized by the fact that the sum of each row, horizontally,
vertically or diagonally always adds up to the same number (15 in this
case). In the renaissance each magical square was assigned to one of
the planets of our solar system and to the powers they represented at
the time. This one (3) was attributed to Saturn (Chronos) who was associated
with matter and the pathological condition of melancholia.
The work looks at first sight like a minimal statement about the dominance
of advertisement in public spaces. It neutralizes and transforms its
commercial content into a calm, almost meditative plane with different
shades of blue thereby quoting the logic of minimalism as a means to
express a sense of refusal. But then this negation is put into an entirely
different perspective through the (hidden) inclusion of the mathematical
pattern and, more important, the reference system which it comes to
symbolize. This discrete merge of two seemingly incompatible worldviews,
in this case even of different ages, puts into question the parameters
on both sides involved.
The title of the work quotes the subtitle of one of my favourite short
stories by Herman Melville, “Bartleby the Scrivener”, where
a copyist working for a company on Wall Street ceases to accept assignments
given to him and instead stares motionless out the window which displays
nothing but a brick wall.
A VOIR:
L'exposition "Le syndrome de Broadway"
à laquelle participe Wolf von Kries se poursuit au centre d'art
du Parc Saint-Léger, Pougues-les-Eaux, jusqu'au 16 septembre
2007. link
The exhibition "Le
syndrome de Broadway" with Wolf von Kries in centre d'art du Parc
Saint-Léger, Pougues-les-Eaux, will be on view until September16th
2007.
link
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