Project #9: Katja Then & Konrad Winter
10. February - 10. April 2023
DavisKlemmGallery Projektraum, Kirchstraße 4, 65239 Hochheim am Main
Project #8: Katja Then & Konrad Winter
ARTISTS
Katja Then (born 1973 in Würzburg) and Konrad Winter (born 1963 in Salzburg) work together for this joint installation in the project space. Both currently live and work in Bad Kissingen. Although their techniques, approaches and works seem very different at first glance, they do have some things in common, which become visible in the project space. Questionable ideal worlds and nostalgic illusions can be found in both works.
MATERIALS
Wood, aluminium, car paint, acrylic glass, acrylic paint - that might sound like a workshop for futuristic pieces of furniture. For Konrad Winter, aluminium and car paint have become his trademark. The industrial materials stand in charming contrast to his impressionistic style. Katja Then often uses found materials in her works. For the project space she used sleds.
PRODUCTION
Katja Then works with ready-mades. She uses found materials - such as sleds. In this case, however, she changes them. Instead of the fabric covering as a seat, she uses an acrylic sheet onto which she applies a "colour fabric". The seemingly simple structure of the surface requires working stroke by stroke, day by day, so that the individual layers can dry and be clearly distinguished from one another. This creates the overlapping, partially transparent structure.
In contrast, Konrad Winter's colours are anything but transparent. Highly glossy, they reflect the light in some places, but are never translucent. His works start from photographs that are edited into light impressions. These individual light impressions are translated into areas of colour - when viewed up close, the motif is not recognizable. The photo template for this work comes from Winters' own camera - taken in Hochheim at the Madonna am Plan, just a few steps away from the project space.
INFLUENCE
Renoir, Mondrian and Duchamp meet each other at ... what sounds like the beginning of an art historical joke makes sense when looking into the project space. Just as Impressionism was able to capture so aptly the emotional sensation of the sun in the field, here the speed of a carousel or sleigh ride is captured. Here, the colour fields lie so separate and tidy next to each other that they are in no way inferior to the neat colour weaving of the toboggan. To juxtapose colour and surface in this way and let them work without subordinating themselves to a motif - Mondrian sends his regards. And let's not forget Duchamp, who was the first to place prefabricated objects in space and declare them to be works of art.
INSTALLATION
The sleds were the starting point of the joint installation. Similar installations of the sleds initially showed them as fabric-covered sculptures in a room. Later the sleds were hung on a wall and now they have moved back into a project space where they are again a sculpture, but this time enhanced with a painted image. They both inhabit the space as well as start a painterly conversation with the painting on the wall. The idea for Konrad Winter's painting first came when asked to develop an idea for the project space and were created especially for this project. From Katja Then's stationary sleds to the rapid sleigh ride including the whirl of colours - the idea for project #9 was born. Konrad Winter deliberately moved the camera so fast that the photograph had to be blurred - is the Madonna still recognisable? To depict the fleetingness of the moment, Winter also intervenes for the first time in the surface of his aluminium plates: By bending the aluminium panel, the image nestles into the corner of the room.
THE SPACE
The 20 m² room, in which pens and exercise books were previously sold, is now available to artists from the DavisKlemmGallery as a project space. Changing projects, installations, works of art and artists can be discovered here. The current presentation will be on view until April 10th 2023.
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