Monday, 11 May 2015

A Point of Access

From the Sculpture Network Newsletter:

Sculpture Network
                                    
My interest in this exhibition right now is not the artwork itself; I find it difficult - and unfair to the artists - to judge any art without going to see/experience it 'in the flesh'. What interests me here are two things (and logging it here safeguards/archives it for future reference): firstly, the highlighted sections - in particular the "... accentuates the process of making her sculptures by leaving the traces of her physical work on the material. The charm of improvisation ...", something that is really firing me at the moment - and 2) the beginning of the commentary on the video, where he explains that, rather than an art-historical biography of the artists, this exhibition tells the story of concepts, i.e. proportion, relationships of size, dimensions, distance from one element to another (I understand that to mean placement or placing in relation to each other and in relation to the exhibition space), and distance between the sculpture/work and the viewer.
We are given an explicit invitation to view this work in a specific way. I'm not so keen on the explicit, directional instruction of how to view an art work here, but I think the giving of a point of access to the viewer can be useful, particularly if the work in question is pushing the boundaries of what art is perceived to be by the general public, i.e. what they believe it should be, what they expect it to be. Without such a point of access, work like this is all too often dismissed with contempt.
I've been working on finding a way to achieve this 'offering a point of access' in relation to some of the more experimental things I've been working on. I have no desire to give an instruction on how the work should be viewed; I want to keep my influence and presence as an artist to a minimum once the work is on show or has been purchased by someone. I, the artist, am no longer important at that stage (I therefore also don't sign my work). The piece speaks for itself; the object (and its story) becomes all important.


Projections of poetic imagination and a personal experience of Greek idealized concept of sculpture 

Esther Kläs, All in, 2011 - photo Ingo Bustorf - Courtesy Collection Peter Blum, NY
Projections of poetic imagination and a personal experience of Greek idealized concept of sculpture
Coined by James Joyce, the word “whatness” translates the philosopher Thomas Aquinas’s concept of quidditas into English. It deals with the essence of a thing, its nature, as opposed to the existence of a thing. Consequently, it inquires into what an object is.

Kunsthalle Bielefeld presents an exhibition featuring the works of Esther Kläs and Johannes Wald. As the title for this show, Whatness emphasizes the commonalities shared by the works of these two young sculptors. Their sculptures reflect their material qualities of sculpture and the processes used to make them, as well as the essence of a sculpture and its effect upon viewers. They formulate the question: what is this three-dimensional thing there? 
Esther Kläs, Untitled (not yet titled), 2014 - photo Ingo Bustorf - Courtesy Esther Kläs, Xavier Hufkens, Brussels
The works shift back and forth in their own ways between figurative motifs and abstraction, the interplay between form and material, and the objects’ rejection of interpretation. It is only through active participation and an indeterminate space for imagination that they are revealed to the viewer: “Beauty . . . is beheld by the imagination,” says Joyce.

Johannes Wald and Esther Kläs create an installation that allows their sculptures to enter into a dialogue with each other in different materials, from aluminium to zinc.

Esther Kläs (Germany, 1981) is often described as a “born sculptor.” Even though most of her sculptures are abstract, they evoke anthropomorphic physicalities or ancient ritualistic sites. They radiate dignity and personality, while developing a beguiling sense of naturalness in the space. They oscillate between a mysterious presence and projections of poetic imagination. The close connection between the works and the artist is always present. Kläs accentuates the process of making her sculptures by leaving the traces of her physical work on the material. The charm of improvisation is as much an effect of her works, as a tendency toward the absurd is. 
Johannes Wald, Studying the greeks’ grace, 2010 - photo Ingo Bustorf
Johannes Wald formulates questions for sculpture. For Wald, primarily sculptural qualities such as texture, material, and three-dimensionality are of secondary importance. He is mainly interested in revealing conditions, methods of making sculpture, and the process of transforming an idea into material.

He takes various approaches to his search for the perfect sculpture and a sense of naturalness as a sculptor. In studying the Greeks’ grace, he examines the essay “Gedanken über die Nachahmung der griechischen Werke in der Malerei und Bildhauerkunst” (Thoughts on imitating the works of the Greeks in painting and sculpture) by the archeologist and art critic Johann Joachim Winckelmann, written in 1755. It considers Greek sculpture to be the most perfect, and the author recommends that his contemporaries imitate it. Wald takes this advice more than 250 years later and applies it to his own works of art.
Johannes Wald, Kunsthalle Bielefeld exhibition view, 2015 - photo Ingo Bustorf
The result, however, is not a modelled sculpture. Rather, through the medium of photography, it refers to the subjectivity of the personal experience of grace, and the imaginary space for an extremely beautiful figure.

In a similar way, his Ekphrasis uses words to create a linguistic presentation of an idealized sculpture, while Pedestal for a Muse has an empty space that provokes an attitude of expectation toward the appearance of a muse. 

Whatness
Esther Kläs
 and Johannes Wald
Until 21.06. 2015

Exhibition curator: Friedrich Meschede
Assistant curator: Meta Marina Beeck

Kunsthalle Bielefeld

Bielefeld, Germany

www.kunsthalle-bielefeld.de

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