Köln
Three Dimensional?
Artists: Baptiste Debombourg, Irena Eden/Stijn Lernout,
Robert Kunec, Kristin Leko, Damir Radovic, Claudia Marcela Robles, Jon Shelton
and Tobias Sternberg
27 January – 17 March 2012
A fascinating selection of artists curated together in a dynamic
group show. This exhibition is thematically centred on contemporary investigations
into concrete art.
Eden & Lernout’s 2D and 3D abstract paintings reference a
long tradition in minimalism and formalism. Utilising a darkened pallet, these
geometric works explore form, line and surface.
In his Aggravure series, Baptiste
Debobourg creates images by physically beating industrial staples into wood.
Beautiful from a distance and violent up close, the works reference and
reappropriate imagery from iconic renaissance paintings. Likewise, the works by
Robert Kunec use the same kind of physicality and perspective. The artist
exhibits sheets of aluminium that he has struck then scribed with a number and
arrow pointing to the various marks. Just as Debobourg’s works read differently
with distance, so too do Kunec’s – from afar they reveal battered landscapes.
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| Baptiste Debombourg, Aggravure V, Staples on wood,114 x 78 cm, 2011 courtesy: krupic kersting galerie || kuk |
Three Dimensional?
is a group exhibition put together to coincide with the Brussels–Cologne event
earlier in the year. Luckily it’s still on until Saturday 17 March so quickly
get in to see it!
Dublin
Lights, Camera,
Action!
Anja Kirschner & David Panos, Laurence Kavanagh and Allan
Hughes
Curated by Mary Cremin
25 February – 31 March 2012
This exhibition looks into artists and artwork that adopt
the cinematic process to create a psychological tension synonymous in cinema. By
deconstructing and reappropriating dialogue and scenes in film and the
cine-novel, these artists illustrate how reinterpretation exposes and flips the
original intent. The show is exhibited in a darkened gallery to replicate the
feel of a cinema and majority of the works are moving images bar the exquisite
sculptures by Laurence Kavanaghs.
Kavanaghs sculptures are based on Allain Robbe-Grillet’s
novel Jealousy in which the
repetitive description of objects and settings create psychological strain. A
pair of lonely shoes on the floor is lit in the shadows of the exhibition by a
lamp that is suspended by string. The string is weaved through the ceiling and
attached to a shaving cabinet on the wall with a hairbrush inside. Intimate and
abandoned objects suggest an unnerving story.
The multi-channel video installation Living truthfully under imaginary circumstances by Kirschner and Panos
had me transfixed. I was mesmerised and hypnotised by the intense repetition
and improvised emotional responses by the actors. Based on acting techniques by
Sanford Meisner, this work involves young actors reciting and repeating
dialogue, which allows dialogue to leap back and forth through the artists and,
in turn, the viewer’s mind. Bouncing words off each other but with different emotional
responses, these interchanges are sometimes genuine, sometimes shocking and
sometimes comical.
An excellent exhibition for moving-image lovers.
Nevin Aladag
City Language
23 February – 31 March 2012
Future, present and past is literally on view in the
multi-channel video installation City
Language, II. The installation comprises of a circle of individual monitors
playing videos that capture a car review-mirror’s reflections. We can see the different
places the driver has come from and is going to. Questioning the world we see
versus the world we know and the memory of everyday meaning and personal
history.
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| City Language II Video installation with 8 monitors Videos from 2 min to 4 min each 2009 Courtesy the artist and mother's tankstation |
Following on with the theme of personal history is City Language III, which features one
pair of hands clapping to a beat. The pair of hands change, but the beat stays
the same. Female, male, black, white, young and old – they all share the same
song.
A great chance to see the installation City Language II that first featured in the 11th
Istanbul Biennale in 2009 alongside other works by Aladag.
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