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20/11/2014

Martin Kahler / David Jablonowski

Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam

Martin Kähler
Why not hang with painters?

Martin and I often discuss our work together. As a painter, I somehow have a hard time with these conversations. Though unintended, he makes me feel kind of uncomfortable thinking about my own practice. Why are there still people like me building a frame, applying paint on a limited surface and hanging that ‘thing’ on the wall?
Often words like ‘space’, ‘content’, ‘form’, ‘context’, ‘idea’, ‘object’, ‘reference’, ‘material’, ‘process’, ‘installation’ are mentioned. Martin's work somehow merges all these different components, but is first of all a tribute to space. In a material process he responds to the physical space. While looking at Martin’s work, I get the feeling of sensible nonsense, everything has to be exactly the way it is in order to work, however its actual meaning escapes.
When I think about what painting means to me, it is the transformation of material, converting the ordinary into something unexpected and surprising: pure visualization. I am painting a yellow form. Could be a banana- it's not a banana. It’s pigment on canvas.
Both transformation of material as its dematerialization can also be found in Martin's sculptures. He de-familiarizes ready-made materials and makes them serve their own purpose, each carrying its significance towards the other.
Martin uses his subtle sense for the compilation of material and creates serenity. The transformation ensures that the material is newly contextualized in the room.
A diamond casually holds together a sculpture made out of bent aluminium bars. It becomes as fragile as alive. Without it, it would immediately collapse, doesn’t that make sense?
So why not hang with painters?

[Maximilian Arnold]

Looking at Martin’s work somehow reminds me of one of my spare time activity: walking. Not particularly walking in the woods, parks or shopping streets, but walking in more dystopian sites like areas around harbours , abandoned houses, factories, alongside train tracks . These urban, industrial or functional areas, have their own empty pockets of space. Where debris of a deconstructed worksite, or an active construction site, has piled up, either in masses or small objects spread out...

This space between construction and destruction seems to be a key factor in Martin’s work, as it is difficult to see what part of this it is actually doing, is it a space in constant activity? Is the artist constructing a new space, maybe even a walk for the visitor, or is he just giving these already deconstructed objects a new context, a new purpose in the gallery space?
To tell you the truth, I don't know, maybe that’s why I am able to relate to it in terms of painting, as that is the core of my practice as an artist. This uncertainty of purpose within space is something I clearly see a lot of painters are working either against or towards in their work.
Building up or tearing down is sometimes so close to each other in my own practice , that I don't even know the difference between them anymore, it just seems like they need and appreciate each other
What is this? What can this be to others? And what does this mean for me and others?
What does this represent? What do you represent?
Why not hang with painters?

[Mickael Marman]

Martin Kaehler graduated this year from the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and is currently studying at the Staedelschule in Frankfurt. For his exhibition in Playstation he's asked Maximilian Arnold and Mickael Marman, two befriended painters to reflect on his practice.

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David Jablonowski
Hype cycle

The body of an Egyptian sphinx has been seamlessly combined with the head of a Chinese dragon. Merging two powerful emblems – different symbolic traits: will the powerful dragon answer the sphinx’ riddle? The image we are looking at is in fact a snapshot of an HSBC advertisement David Jablonowski took at a Gatwick Airport walkway. ‘New trade routes will reshape world economies’ is its accompanying slogan, hinting towards a future perspective, where those routes might be both physical and digital, trading objects and data. In this context however, the image functions as a metaphor for – and element in – Jablonowski’s artistic practice, in which a diverse range of elements and references are quite literally appropriated and juxtaposed in multi-media sculptures and installations.

Since 2008, Jablonowski has been working with the sculptural qualities of communication technologies. For his second solo show at the gallery, he continues this interest with an investigation into the latest developments in digital marketing, data prediction and global trading. The series ‘Prediction Columns’ for example, derives from standard and shiny corporate displays. These large sculptures made up of stacked clear plastic boxes, glass and LED panels, contain a selection of texts and objects selected through digital search algorithms. Google saves internet users’ browsing patterns as a source for mining data in order to create fine-tuned advertising, that most of know as ‘You may also like’. In Jablonowski’s series, the algorithm has quite directly informed the selection of different elements for the work, while simultaneously showing its disorder. Similarly, the title of this exhibition ‘Hype cycle’ refers to future predictions, as it is a graphic tool, used by IT advisory company Gartner to visualize and determine technology’s promises: describing its course from maturity, adoption and social application. Juxtaposed to these shiny displays, is a 150 year old wooden transport wagon. Out of place, out of time, a sense of nostalgia and archaism hovers over this object. While the ‘Prediction towers’ seem to be a manifestation of an unlived future, the wooden car here is frozen history, it has outrun its function and no matter what upgrade, the hype cycle no longer counts.

David Jablonowski (1982) lives and works in Amsterdam. He was a resident artist at De Ateliers in Amsterdam and ISCP in New York. In 2014 his ongoing series Hello Prediction! was exhibited at ArtCologne, Cologne; Lüttgenmeijer, Berlin and Galleria Raucci/SantaMaria, Naples. Recent solo exhibitions include Prosumer, Gemeentemuseum The Hague (NL, 2013); Tools and Orientations BALTIC, Gateshead (UK, 2013); Blue Greens, Westfalischer Kunstverein Munster (DE, 2012); Many to Many (Stone Carving High Performance), Dallas Contemporary (USA, 2011); 1.33:1, Hard Copy Display Sequences, Multi Channel Projection at Comma 30 Bloombergspace London (UK, 2011); Material Kontingenz at SMBA (Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam), (NL, 2010); and Imposition, Schaufenster of Kunstverein Duesseldorf, Germany (DE, 2009). Furthermore Jablonowski’s work has been exhibited in group shows in Museum Haus Lange / Haus Esters, Krefeld (DE); Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruch (AT); Stedelijk Museum Schiedam (NL); De Vleeshal, Middelburg (NL); ZKM, Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe (DE); Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (NL); Museum De Hallen, Haarlem (NL); Kunsthalle Basel (CH).

Image: Snapshot of an HSBC advertisement at London Gatwick Airport

Opening: Friday 21 November, 5–7pm

Galerie Fons Welters
Bloemstraat 140, Amsterdam
Tuesday - Saturday, 13 - 18 pm

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