12/12/2003
Kirsten Pieroth
Portikus, Frankfurt
Under the title From the Laboratory of Thomas A. Edison, Pieroth will show a new installation consisting of two works. The exhibition confronts an empty sheet of writing-paper from the laboratory of the important inventor, which the artist bought at an auction, with a large heap of building material.
FROM THE LABORATORY OF THOMAS A. EDISON
Invitation to a conversation with the press on Friday, December 12, 2003, at 11 a.m.
Opening Saturday, December 13, 2003, 8 p.m.
Under the title From the Laboratory of Thomas A. Edison, Kirsten Pieroth will
show a new installation consisting of two works. The exhibition confronts an
empty sheet of writing-paper from the laboratory of the important inventor,
which the artist bought at an auction, with a large heap of building material.
In connection with a photo documentation, the laths, boards, window and door
elements already cut to size and sorted make it clear that we are faced with
elements for constructing a building. This work entitled Building #11 is indeed
a reconstruction - compiled from photos - of the materials that were most likely
needed to erect Building #11 of Edison's laboratory complex. The sculpture is
therefore a kind of full-scale model kit of the building's exterior.
Edison's largest research centre was built in 1887 in West Orange, New Jersey,
and was initially a complex comprising five brick buildings. In the following
years, it was expanded by further buildings, including Building #11 which was
erected in 1899 and used as a chemical laboratory. In 1940, the house was given
to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. To this end, all individual
parts of the building were meticulously disassembled and numbered, to then be
built up again piece by piece in Michigan as an attraction on the museum's
historical outdoor grounds. The building stood there for the next 60 years. Last
year, however, the Henry Ford Museum wanted to accommodate a different part of
its collection on that spot, so the wooden shack was again disassembled and
re-erected back at its original site in West Orange. Due to this double
repositioning of the facade as well as the fact that over time decrepit wooden
components of the house were long replaced by new ones, Building #11 has
meanwhile become it's own full-scale model, even though it is again situated at
its original location. It has completely given up its function as a chemical lab
and become a pure exhibit.
By fabricating a copy as a model construction kit, this famous laboratory
theoretically becomes available for everyone, even if only as a facade,
container or casing. The empty sheet of writing-paper, although it is the only
original object from Edison's laboratory present in Pieroth's installation, is
also a container that never became the carrier of authentic contents. Both the
reconstruction of the laboratory as a model and the piece of paper are
characterised by their lack of function, in the latter case based on a missed
opportunity, in the other case given up for the sake of authenticity. Kirsten
Pieroth's feigning of the possibility of a further geographical shift of the lab
and its confrontation with a blank piece of writing-paper reveal in a simple but
highly precise manner the complexity of the notions of originality, fake and
copy. By means of strategic interventions, rearrangements and
recontextualizations, Pieroth repeatedly succeeds in offering a different
readability of common concepts and familiar conditions.
Kirsten Pieroth (born 1970) lives and works in Berlin.
Portikus
Schoene Aussicht 2 D-60311, Frankfurt
tel 49 069 21998760