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15/9/2006

Stefan Thiel

Galerie Jesco Von Puttkamer, Berlin

Plato's Shadow

Jesco von Puttkamer Gallery is happy to present the third solo exhibition of artist Stefan Thiel. The exhibition, which takes place in the rooms of the gallery, is entitled Plato’s Shadow.

Stefan Thiel’s new works draw attention to paper structures cut with a scalpel and the various artistic possibilities they offer. The paper silhouettes are not focused on one particular theme but use a wide array of backgrounds and sources.

In his earlier works, Stefan Thiel presented the 1980s haute couture in paper silhouettes. He was most interested in the way geometrical patterns create more volume — and thus more body and more of a three-dimensional impression — the more spaciously they are designed. A textile fringe at the hem of a dress falling loosely over legs draws the gaze to the space in front and behind the object. This minute detail inspired Stefan Thiel to devote himself to the perception of space. The new work ‘Luftschlangen 3’, 2006, exemplifi es this exploration of pattern and space.

The principle of spatial separation can be seen very clearly in the work ‘Tegel’, 2006, which shows the visitors’ lounge of Tegel Airport. The fi ne lines of the venetian blinds separate the shadow forms of the visitors’ looking outside from the runway and the planes behind the glass of the window. In another, earlier work, ‘Tarnnetz II’, 2003, an additional textile structure is draped over a bar-like net. In parts it hangs loosely, in others it is fi rmly attached so that it is impossible to look at what is behind the bars. Then again, the space behind the net can be vaguely discerned, it opens itself to the viewer. This idea of playing with space made the artist rip holes in the stockings of his photographed models. Thus the pattern formed by the models’ bodies was destroyed. The work ‘K0406ws’, 2006, shows a woman whose legs are clad in ripped stockings. The image is based on the concept that form created for its denotative structure and rigour is dissolved, allowing narrative and illustrative moments to emerge.

When structures dissolve, possibilities open up and new relationship can be formed. As for their formal aspects, all of Thiel’s works are closely inter related. The diamond-shaped pattern of the stockings (‘K0406ws’, 2006) describes a body, it re-emerges in the windswept water of a river (‘Untitled’, 2006), to eventually become one element of a wire-netting fence (‘Studie’, 2006). More than that, the elimination of all colour but black and white makes visible the formal construct, at the same time a new powerful aesthetic is made possible which can be trans - lated into a new system of meaning.

What potential, other than mere representation, lies within the paper silhouette? This is the question raised and elaborated on in Stefan Thiel’s new works.

In reference to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, the artist points out what is both irritating and captivating when watching ‘shadow play’: The shadow forms in the cave of Plato‘s allegory captivated the cave-dwellers in more than one way. They are literally captives in the cave and only know this one view of things, only this kind of reality. But when someone comes to rescue them, they prefer their own world of shadows to the reality outside the cave.

Image: Stefan Thiel, Rodia, 2006, Paper cut-out, 70,5 x 97,5 cm

Opening: Saturday, 16 September 2006, 7 - 9 pm

Galerie Jesco Von Puttkamer
Strausberger Platz 3 10243 Berlin, Germany

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