5/9/2008
Alexej Meschtschanow
Klemm's, Berlin
Come to Daddy
Alexej Meschtschanow’s sculptures and installations are the result of an appropriative observation of social habits and the embedded aesthetic and psycho-social conventions. In an analytical, yet always compassionate approach he singles out exemplary material from his surroundings. To study the immediate social environment of the suburbs and side streets, the constellations at the supermarket checkout or on a station’s platform is as important to him as the discussion of the "iridescent products of high-culture". These impressions are reflected in his work. Characteristic for Meschtschanow are his carefully selected found or furniture objects that are forced together by idiosyncratic steel constructions and therewith achieve an augmented and stabilizing form of existence.
The exhibition 'Come to Daddy' provides room for these approaches. The already in the title indicated ambivalence of familiarity and enforced familial proximity is the basis for the exhibition concept. Meschtschanow interweaves here biographic material with a fictitious, abstract-mechanic formal vocabulary. The traditional image of a living room might be insinuated by the presence of lounge suite, wall-piece and shelves, but rather serves as an oppressive projection space than a homely living parlor. Deformation, auxesis and threatening physical presence counter experienced history, memories and mislead communication. The broad gesture of the positioned steel elements in the space blend with the refined chair sculptures and wall-pieces. Every clamp, bracket or screw constitutes a social ornament that never can be trusted unconditionally. The balance between black humor and actual discomfort remains fragile.
Alexej Meschtschanow alters his focus from the play with the original function of the objects onto the physical presence and mental charging of the autonomous sculpture.
Opening: Saturday, 09/06/2008 from 6 – 9 p.m.
Klemm's
Brunnenstrasse 7 - Berlin
Free admission