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7/9/2007

Mannerphantasien

Chung King Project, Los Angeles

Group show

Ellen Blumenstein

Chung King Project is pleased to present Männerphantasien, a group exhibition curated by German curator Ellen Blumenstein featuring the works of Berlin-based artists, Dennis Rudolph, Damien Deroubaix, Martin Dammann, Marcellvs L., Rommelo Yu, and Michael Müller.

Inspired by the best-seller by the German writer and philosopher Klaus Theweleit “Männerfantasien” in the late 1970s*, this exhibition takes Theweleit’s book title as a starting point and reference to discuss the implication of feminist discourses on men’s search for their role, their identity and their (conscious or not) obsessions amidst a generation whose clear gender- and role models have been shuffled by the impact of feminist theories. According to Theweleit, the term “male fantasies” does not stand for “sexual fantasies” in the first place, as one might assume. But it refers to the images and constructions that men develop to create a stable self-perception in order to position themselves towards the surrounding world.

Artworks by men that openly discuss these themes, appears quite rarely, although we are all longtime familiar with the processes of self-assurance by female artists. This doesn’t seem, however, to be the way men address their concerns. But today, in reflection to Theweleit’s work, a significant number of young German or Germany- based artists choose to examine their male fantasies in the perspective of German history and art history. Ellen Blumenstein, a young female curator, will present works by male artists all working in Berlin, who explore this topic using different approaches.

The German Dennis Rudolph, for example, is freely choosing imagery from the 3rd Reich and eliminates its documentary status to re-load it with the eternal and regularly recurring longing for redemption and the sublime that the national socialists were trying to re- animate by accessing iconic and mythical personage and objects. This is, in Rudolph’s case, the eagle, german soil, the “power of the blood”, Prometheus, and even christian imagery like temples, the messiah or Mary.

Martin Dammann, on the other hand, trusts exactly in the old images and follows their traces. His works are largely based on war photography from both world wars, which he has collected from private albums and archives. Dammann’s fascination with the German past and his decision to abstain from creating his own, professional images, choosing instead to refurbish old, amateur photographs and thereby reinterpret them, reflects his need to redeem the present from the past.

The young “New-Berliner” Marcellvs L. just moved to Germany from Brazil, a context that is completely new to him and very different from his own cultural and social background. As always in his films, he fathoms his own fragile position towards reality by fixing the position of the camera (the artist) to observe the changes in the world around him.

Rommelo Yu was born in the Phillipines, raised in the US and moved to Berlin in his early 20s. His work oftentimes connects to his own “lost” Asian cultural background in reference to his current Western living context. In his specially commissionned work for this show, he relates himself to modern art history by developing sculptures that physically try to inscribe his own body into pieces from Sol LeWitt.

In a more conceptual way, the half German, half English Michael Müller also deals with the history of art. His works, refers to minimalist as well as conceptual traditions, but uses them to express thoughts on the constructedness of the world and how we perceive and try to make sense out of it. Last, but not least, the French Damien Deroubaix obsessively and repetitively works with heavily loaded icons and catch words that connect aggression, violence and sexual fantasies. The images are fed by his perception of everyday political and social reality which provides the flow of associations from different fields.

Image: Martin Dammann

Opening Reception Saturday 8 September, 2007

Chung King Project
936 Chung King Road - Los Angeles
Free admission

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