Project #8
25. November 2022 - 05. February 2023
DavisKlemmGallery Projektraum, Kirchstraße 4, 65239 Hochheim am Main
Project #8: Birgitta Weimer
The stars can be seen daily from 4 till 10 pm.
ARTIST
Birgitta Weimer was born in 1956 in Gemünden am Main and studied with Sigmar Polke, Kai Sudeck and Ulrich Rückriem in Hamburg at the Hochschule für bildende Künste. Since then, she has been interested in structures, which she examines in an almost scientific manner. Her work is regularly shown in solo and group exhibitions in Germany and internationally, including Osthausmuseum in Hagen (2017), Kunstmuseum Linz, Austria (2017), Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, USA (2011), and arp museum in Remagen (2011). Her work is represented in numerous public collections, including Museum Ritter, Waldenbuch, the collection of the German Federation of works after 1945, Berlin, and in the collection of the foundation Wilhelm-Lehmbruck-Museum, Duisburg. She lives and works in Cologne.
MATERIALS
Epoxy resin and lighting technology. Birgitta Weimer describes epoxy resin, which is used in many areas, as the "bronze of the modern age": Floor sealing, shipbuilding or model making, for example. Artists like to use it for small-format editions. The Messier objects, however, are not editions, since each one is unique and depicts a different star map. Nevertheless, the ellipsoid shape of the Messier objects is always the same, thus allowing the mold to be used multiple times. From the inside, the objects are bright so that no light is absorbed. The lighting technology inside is waterproof and consists of metal halide lamps dimmed to 240 volts - normally these are used for lighting shop windows, a purpose they indirectly serve again here in the Hochheim project space.
PRODUCTION
The very precisely crafted Messier objects by Birgitta Weimer are aesthetically pleasing and "simply beautiful". They refer to the work of the French astronomer Charles Messier (1730-1817), who created the basis for the systematic exploration of galaxies, nebulae and star clusters with his star charts - the "Messier Catalog". The designation "Messier" or "M" with a number as an addition for naming star images has survived until today. Birgitta Weimer uses high-resolution professional star charts plotted on paper. Using these charts, the stars are perforated onto the epoxy resin to create the star map. Using light, the stars on the object are later projected onto the surroundings.
INFLUENCE
In many of her works, Birgitta Weimer's focus is on microstructures, which she depicts in huge dimensions. In this case, it's the other way around: something immeasurably large - the starry sky - is shrunk down and reduced to a room format. At 90 cm in diameter and 45 cm high, an entire starry sky fits comfortably in the trunk of a car. In her contemplations of macro- and microstructures, the artist adopts scientific methods. Although she works in a scientific way and makes the incomprehensible comprehensible, she still maintains the mystical character of scientific order in universal chaos.
INSTALLATION
Light installations are always fascinating. Light attracts people, creates attention and yet it is intangible. Colored church windows - a kind of medieval light installation - were seen as a representation of heavenly Jerusalem: something imponderable was represented in an palpable medium. This is also how Weimer's Messier objects function. Inconceivably distant and spatially large contexts are brought brought together through the medium of light. It is not only the obect itself with the light inside - the "tangible" - that is the installation, but above all the spots of light that it creates: on walls, ceilings, floors and random people passing by, who become the projection surface of Messier's star map.
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 February 2nd, 2023 and can be seen daily from 4 to 10 pm.
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Project #7: Gierlach / Finneran
01. September - 20. November 2022
DavisKlemmGallery Projektraum, Kirchstraße 4, 65239 Hochheim am Main
Project #7: Katharina Gierlach and Bean Finneran
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Project #6: Ulrich Schreiber
10. June - 28. August 2022
DavisKlemmGallery Projektraum, Kirchstraße 4, 65239 Hochheim am Main
Projekt #6: Ulrich Schreiber
DAS MATERIAL
Voluminös und dennoch fragil wirken die Skulpturen von Ulrich Schreiber. Das Material Draht ermöglicht sowohl Leichtigkeit als auch Stabilität. Schreiber verwendet den Draht wie einen Bleistiftstrich im Raum. Eine besondere Möglichkeit und Herausforderung zugleich – sowohl für den Künstler als auch für den Betrachter – ist die Überlagerung der Linien. Striche, die in einer Zeichnung nicht sichtbar sind, weil sie die Rückseite des dargestellten Objekts umreißen, sind hier klar sichtbar. So überlagern sich Vorder- und Rückseite und bilden je nach Perspektive neue Zusammenhänge.
DER KÜNSTLER
Ulrich Schreiber (*1960) wollte ursprünglich Grafik und Design studieren. Und Grafiker ist er irgendwie auch geworden, nur zeichnet er mit Draht statt mit dem Stift. Im dreidimensionalen Raum statt auf dem zweidimensionalen Papier. Geprägt hat ihn das Studium im Mainz. Dort studierte er zunächst Kunsterziehung, später freie Kunst an der Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität. In der Metallklasse von Professor Ullrich Hellmann wurde er inspiriert, mit stabilerem Material als dem Bleistiftstrich zu arbeiten. Neben dem Salzburgstipendium der Stadt Mainz und dem Albert-Haueisen-Förderpreis prägten ihn vor allem zwei Burgund-Reisestipendien des Landes Rheinland-Pfalz. Mitte der 1990er Jahre begann er auch in Burgund zu arbeiten, wo er in einem Hof ein zweites Atelier eingerichtet hat. Er lebt und arbeitet seither in Mainz und Burgund, Frankreich.
DIE HERSTELLUNG
In seinen freien Arbeiten verwendet Ulrich Schreiber den Draht tatsächlich wie eine Bleistiftzeichnung. Sein Atelier wirkt daher eher wie eine Metallwerkstatt mit allen notwendigen Werkzeugen und Materialien, um Arbeiten aus Eisen in Form von Drähten, Stäben, Rohren und Blechen herstellen zu können. Dabei spielt - anders als bei einer Zeichnung - in der Dreidimensionalität die Statik eine große Rolle.
DIE EINFLÜSSE
Seine Ideen findet Ulrich Schreiber oft im Alltag, oft auch in Dingen, zu denen er keinen persönlichen Bezug hat. Seine Wohnwagen und Hochsitze spiegeln nicht etwa seine bevorzugte Lebenswelt wider, sondern drücken eher eine distanzierte Faszination für Objekte aus, deren Lebenswelt er nicht nachempfinden kann. Genau wie der Schreibtisch sind es jedoch Objekte, die in verschiedensten Formen und Variationen zu finden sind. Schreiber fängt ihre reduzierte Form ein, die den fast platonischen Charakter eines allumfassenden Typs wiedergibt. Gerade so viele Details werden hinzugefügt, um das Objekt lebendig und erfassbar zu machen. Viele unnötige Aspekte werden weggelassen, um einen reduzierten und gleichzeitig vollständigen Charakter der Dinge zu zeigen. So erinnern seine Drahtzeichnungen im Raum in ihrer Idee an die reduzierten Portraits Pablo Picassos, die mit nur einer Linie den Charakter eines Menschen oder eines Tiers einfangen – bekanntestes Beispiel ist die Friedenstaube.
DIE INSTALLATION
Ein Schreibtisch mit verschiedenen Utensilien, im Hintergrund Aktenordner. Eine Bürosituation. Vor Jahren arbeitete Ulrich Schreiber an einem Schreibtisch für eine Ausstellung, als ihm bewusst wurde, dass dieser Schreibtisch kein allgemeines, unpersönliches Ding ist. Kein Chefsessel sollte davorstehen, von dem aus ein Konzern geleitet wird. Unwillkürlich hatte er den Schreibtisch seines Vaters nachgebildet, wie er ihn aus seiner Erinnerung an dessen Arbeitsplatz als Buchhalter kannte. Zahlenkolonnen und Aktenordner, das Geräusch von Papier und Rechenmaschinen. Passend für den ehemaligen Schreibwarenladen hier in Hochheim, zeichnet er diese Erinnerung in Draht nach. Der schwere Schreibtisch und die Massen an Akten entstehen – wie die Erinnerung – dabei nur im Kopf des Betrachters. Denn das Volumen, das hier dargestellt wird, besteht nur aus dessen Umrissen. Die Spannung zwischen den skizzierten Linien lässt die komplette Einrichtung vor unseren Augen entstehen. Das tatsächliche Objekt ist so leicht, dass eine einzelne Person es problemlos transportieren könnte.
DER RAUM
Der 20 m² große Raum, in dem früher Stifte und Schulhefte verkauft wurden, steht nun Künstler*innen der DavisKlemmGallery zur Gestaltung zur Verfügung. Statt regelmäßiger, aber begrenzter Öffnungszeiten, ist der Raum rund um die Uhr zu besichtigen: Durch die große Fensterfront ist der komplette Raum und damit das jeweilige Projekt ständig einsehbar. So werden hier wechselnde Projekte, Installationen, Kunstwerke und Künstler zu entdecken sein. Die aktuelle Präsentation wird bis 28. August 2022 zu sehen sein.
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Project #5: Nicole Fehling
08. April - 06. June 2022
DavisKlemmGallery Projektraum, Kirchstraße 4, 65239 Hochheim am Main
Project #5: Nicole Fehling
MATERIALS
Paper is fragile. It's easy to work with. It can be found in everyday packaging in a wide variety of forms. As a "disposable material", the value of paper in its existence as a protection for high-quality products is assessed as rather low. However, as in many other areas, the corona crisis also triggered a “paper crisis”. The supply shortage made it clear that paper is by no means a readily available material. Luckily, the artist was able to get hold of enough sheets of her favorite 130g/m² paper in the exact shade of white that makes a stack of plain cardboard boxes shine.
THE ARTIST
Nicole Fehling (*1969) studied communication design in Wiesbaden and then visual arts with Prof. Knoche-Wendel at the Art Academy in Mainz. Various work grants in Wiesbaden, most recently since 2020 from the Wiesbaden Artists' Association, enable her to concentrate on the topic that concerns her in all her work: packaging. Central aspects are, for example, industrial versus individual production methods and areas of tension between order and chaos, but also very personal meanings of packaging in everyday life.
PRODUCTION
Instead of being made by machine like their role models in the packaging industry, each individual box is made by hand. The artist not only does the folding, but also the cutting from the sheets of paper. Why? Because a machine cannot achieve the perfection that the artist can achieve by hand. Because the routine work triggers a meditative monotony that turns the mass of identical products into a series of individual objects. The contrast between perfect serial production and an individual object intrigues the artist. The automatism of our everyday consumption, which looks at an installation with five boxes in a similar way to one with 500 boxes, is put in question. Do we really need the 495 additional boxes? The greed for more, deliberately triggered by online shops or caused by a crisis, is exposed as unnecessary and unreflected in view of the complex production.
INFLUENCE
Packaging is omnipresent in our everyday lives. At least since the exaltation of consumer products in Pop Art, for example by Andy Warhol, packaging has also been relevant in art. Instead of adopting advertising aesthetics, Nicole Fehling reduces packaging to its pure external form. This empty shell loses the prestigious character that a Chanel sign might lend to packaging. Her preference for a material that is perceived as cheap, such as paper, places Nicole Fehling conceptually, if not aesthetically, in the tradition of Arte Povera. Her installation oscillates between putting emphasis on form and production on the one hand and cheap disposable material on the other.
INSTALLATION
Empty boxes are stacked almost to the ceiling.The towers seem to represent an abundance of material. But without content, the towers become even more fragile. A gust of wind can knock them over. The shape of these boxes is strangely familiar due to the corona crisis: the packaging of surgical masks in packs of 50 can not only be found in doctor's offices and in public facilities, but also in supermarkets - and they have even become a familiar sight at home. The shortage at the beginning of the pandemic has now turned into an abundance, which is noticeable in discarded or lost masks on the side of the road. Nicole Fehring shows us how the last two years have not only influenced our consumer behavior, but also our viewing habits.
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. Instead of regular but limited opening times, the room can be viewed around the clock: the entire room and thus the project can be viewed at all times thanks to the large window front. Changing projects, installations, works of art and artists can be discovered here. The current presentation will be on view until June 6, 2022.
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Projekt #4: Mario Hergueta
28. January - 03. April 2022
DavisKlemmGallery Projektraum, Kirchstraße 4, 65239 Hochheim am Main
Project #4: Mario Hergueta
MATERIALS
Acrylic on canvas. Mario Hergueta chooses a very classic material. As a result, the contrast to the digitally generated motifs with there digital appearance gets larger. The material alone points to the current position of artists between digital possibilities and influences and analogue art history. Some viewers are more used to looking at a screen than looking at a painting. But when it comes to art, most people expect a canvas instead of a screen. Or not?
THE ARTIST
Mario Hergueta studied from 1988 to1995 art history and fine arts in Frankfurt and Mainz and was a master student in Prof. Ansgar Nierhoff's sculpture class at the now Kunsthochschule Mainz. His works deal with the possibilities and intersections of different media. Painting, printing, sculpture, murals and video installations Malerei, Druck, Skulpturen, Wandmalereien sowie Videoinstallationen can be found among his works.
PRODUCTION
The starting point for project #4 is a random sentence generator that Mario Hergueta developed and programmed in 1997. The programm „Stop Making Sense“ builds random nonsense sentences from a word data bank (see: www.stopmakingsense.hergueta.org ). He does the translation from the digital to the analogue world himself: he chooses from the randomly created sentences with the corresponding random typeface, font color and background color. The sentences are then printed and stretched on stretcher frames. After that he applys an acrylic paint with a paint brush, leaving visible brush strokes on the surface - as expected from "real art". It is precisely with these expectations and questions that Hergueta plays: what is art? What is a creative process?
INFLUENCE
What is art? This question is one of the oldest in art history. It is no easier to answer today with the development of artificial intelligence. where are the limits? What can a machine do? In particular, the creative process is attributed to humans alone. If a work is made half by a machine, is the creative part only the selection process done by the artist? Hergueta refers to Marcel Duchamp, who declared a bottle dryer to be a work of art through his own decision at the beginning of the 20th century.
INSTALLATION
While art has often only been perceived digitally over the past year and a half, Mario Hergueta creates in project #4 an analogue display. His "screen", i.e. the shop window, gives an insight into a space in which the digital has crossed over into the real world. The walls are covered with confusing sentences, color impressions and typefaces. And thus only depicts a fraction of a real screen. Hergueta makes a small selection from the endless variety of random sentences. With this he gives his answer to the question of creative processes and the role of the artist: he chooses and creates art through his choice.
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. Instead of regular but limited opening times, the room can be viewed around the clock: the entire room and thus the project can be viewed at all times thanks to the large window front. Changing projects, installations, works of art and artists can be discovered here. The current presentation will be on view until April 3rd, 2022.
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