6/11/2003
Two exhibitions
Portikus, Frankfurt
Portikus presents last video work by English artist Ceal Floyer and a big sculpture project by New York based artist Spencer Finch
Ceal Floyer will show a new video projection entitled Peel. The work gives the impression of the back wall of the exhibition space being removed layer by layer, as if endless layers of white wallpaper were being peeled off. As with her other works, it is important for Ceal Floyer in Peel to reveal the media-related components of the projection and make them easy to comprehend for
the viewers. Peel is based on a function of the computer software Adobe Premiere. The option Peel in this ordinary video editing programme designates an effect with which one image can be transformed into another. In Ceal Floyer's installation, this tool is the actual visual experience, but the illusionism or the optical delusion does not stand in the foreground. Peel is the title of the work, but it equally reveals the way in which the work is originated. The
familiar effect of the digital image editor is applied to the architecture of the exhibition space, precisely by omitting any kind of image. The projection pretends to destroy the wall, but are pictures are neither leafed through nor are layers of a gallery wall actually peeled off. Time and again, Ceal Floyer successfully questions our customary experiences of cause and effect, of
representation and presentation, by means of her usually quite simple interventions.
In the entrance and office area of Portikus, Spencer Finch has installed a large-scale light sculpture entitled Mars Black. Mars Black is the name of a pigment made of iron oxide (ferrosoferric oxide). The chemical formula of the iron oxide molecule, FeO 3Fe2O3, forms the basis for the design of the individual lamp bodies. Iron and oxygen atoms are represented by different size light bulbs. With all his installations, Finch consistently succeeds in drawing
attention to the large variety of possibilities we have to represent the world, as well as their limits, in a poetic, playful, and at times also absurd manner. Mars Black is the scientific representation of black in the form of brightly glowing lamps. The work is supplemented by a series of pastels entitled Darkness, which Spencer Finch created in the dark each evening over the past weeks. They focus on the subjective perception of darkness in various ways. In addition, Spencer Finch has produced a publication for the exhibition, consisting of pages printed in monochrome black. By using different shades of black on different types of paper, Finch succeeds with this work, as well, in presenting the multitude of black tones and thus in questioning both the possibilities of our perception and the existence of objectivity.
Ceal Floyer (*1968) lives and works in London and Berlin.
Spencer Finch (*1962) lives and works in New York.
In the image: 'Blue' (sky over Los Alamos, New Mexico 5/5/00 morning effect), Spencer Finch, 2000 lumps and bulbs, variable dimensions
Portikus
Weckmarkt 17
D-60311 Frankfurt am Main
Tel ++49 (0)69 219 987-60
Fac ++49 (0)69 219 987-61