Solo show
Solo show
From March 15 through April 15, 2006, Galerie Martin Janda is showing work by the
American conceptual artist Allen Ruppersberg. Ruppersberg (born 1944 in Cleveland,
Ohio) is part of the first generation of artists in the USA whose artwork critically
approached the means and methods of the mass media. The Kunsthalle Dusseldorf
recently put on a large show of his work (One of Many - Origins and Variants,
December 2005 - February 2006); a selection of his artwork is currently on display
at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
In his second personal at Galerie Martin Janda, Ruppersberg grapples primarily with
different forms of language and poetry. Twenty-two boxes containing images and
illustrations, copied out of children's books and colouring books, are situated on a
table. "Poetry should be made by all and not by one." Visitors to the gallery may
accept the invitation - inspired by a Lautre'amont poem - to assemble their own poem
with these images. During the opening Allen Ruppersberg will also sign and emboss
the free poetry.
The two pieces exhibited on the wall, Spacebound and Flashback Start Over
(2001/2006), also offer interaction possibilities: Ruppersberg once again takes up
themes from childhood, in this case excerpted from a number of sources, including
colouring books and illustration sample books. Images, for example of a family of
piglets, are combined with text passages taken from tombstone engravings, and
thereby arranged as new, bizarre stories. By wearing the large, laminated pages the
exhibition-goers can put them in a different order. Ruppersberg also tells such a
pictorial poem in False Eye Level (2001/2006), which is presented as giant book atop
another table.
In a silkscreen series the artist focuses on the phenomenon of collecting, and
especially of organizing and reorganizing a collection. The slogan Honey, I
rearranged the collection ... prefaces each work in his project The New Five Foot
Shelf of Books, which began in 2001. Allen Ruppersberg is a collector of art, books
and printed matter of all types (see also http://www.diacenter.org/ruppersberg ).
On the gallery's upper level we are showing Allen Ruppersberg`s Slide Poems (2004).
Galerie Martin Janda
Eschenbachgasse 11 - Wien
Opening hours: Tue-Fri 1 - 6 p.m., Sat 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.