Friederike Feldmann
dal 5/6/2006 al 21/7/2006
Segnalato da
5/6/2006
Friederike Feldmann
Galerie Barbara Weiss (old location), Berlin
A wall painting and a series of pictures - neither proclaim the end of painting nor do they attempt to better some other work. They paint around - or repaint - the work, by literally painting around the format the artist selected.
Friederike Feldmann's most recent works - a wall painting and a series
of pictures - neither proclaim the end of painting nor do they attempt
to better some other work. They paint around - or repaint - the work, by
literally painting around the format the artist selected.
Feldmann's new wall painting in Galerie Barbara Weiss paints around the
monumental format of wall painting. In contrast to the traditionally
opulent use of this format, only the corners and edges of the gallery
space are painted, leading to an intentional optical illusion. It seems
as if the entire wall surface has been painted white with generous
brushstrokes. But of course the opposite is the case - it is not the
wall but only the corners and edges that Feldmann has painted.
Whereas Feldmann's well-known series of carpets, altars and mountains
have hitherto produced soft images (Walter Benjamin) of painting, she is
now also providing the sharp counterparts. This becomes apparent in the
second part of this exhibition, the picture series. The series shows
soft, out-of-focus images, because here too after-images of painting are
produced: smudged cliche's, hallucinatory dream images of an historical
form of painting.
The pictures in the series are in sharp focus because Feldmann adds
precision to the historical genre that is at stake here. These images
look like reproductions in the abstract expressionist style. But in
contrast to Feldmann's altars or mountains this particular genre is here
greatly zoomed in and brought into focus.
By using a variety of technical means - scanning, projection,
reproduction - Feldmann is able to bring the depth or the surface of the
image into and out of focus at will. And this is precisely the
achievement of her painting: because she looks from the outside at the
history of painting as an object she is able to alter this history in
her own way.
This leads to a microscopic clarity within the unclear and vague forms
that we otherwise fail to perceive; Feldmann displaces the action of
painting to the margins. These operations on the margins reveal
something that painting prefers to conceal: the margins and the borders
that lead into the non-painted and the unpainterly, the depth and the
power of the ground of the painting. Knut Ebeling
Opening: Saturday, June 3, 7 - 9 pm
Galerie Barbara Weiss
Zimmerstrasse 88-9 - Berlin
Gallery hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 11am - 6pm