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9/12/2009

Eva Hesse / Katja Strunz

Camden Arts Centre, London

Eva Hesse
Studiowork

A solo presentation of the work of German-born American artist Eva Hesse (1936 – 1970), a major figure in post-war art. The exhibition is the result of new research by renowned Hesse scholar Professor Briony Fer and is curated by Fer and Barry Rosen, Director of The Estate of Eva Hesse.

Throughout her career, Eva Hesse produced a large number of small, experimental works alongside her large-scale sculpture. These objects, so-called test pieces, were made in a wide range of materials, including latex, wire-mesh, sculp-metal, wax and cheesecloth. Left in her studio at the time of her death, sold or given to friends during her lifetime, these objects evade easy definition, seen variously as experiments, little pieces, moulds, tests or finished pieces.

In her recent research on Hesse’s work, Briony Fer collectively renamed these objects as studioworks, proposing that their precarious nature places them at the heart of Hesse’s work and questions traditional notions of what sculpture is.

This exhibition brings together around fifty works drawn from major public and private collections around the world, showing works which are extremely fragile and rarely travel. The exhibition and the accompanying major publication offer a timely new interpretation of Hesse’s historical position, as well as highlighting her relevance for contemporary art now.

‘The joy and freedom of Hesse’s art is staggering. Any young artist could get an education just by coming to this show a few times’ Jonathan Jones, The Guardian

Eva Hesse: Studiowork is organised by The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh in collaboration with Camden Arts Centre, London; Fundacio Antoni Tapies, Barcelona; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto and Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.

The exhibition is supported by The Foyle Foundation, Columbia Foundation Fund of the Capital Community Foundation, Mike Davies Charitable Settlement, Brian Boylan and Cathy Wills.

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Katja Strunz
Sound of the Pregeometric Age

Berlin-based artist Katja Strunz’s first solo exhibition in London presents a new installation that has evolved from Strunz’s reaction to the space – in particular the sound which resonates from the road outside.

A group of figurines or ‘musicians’ made from found objects, including candlesticks, Turkish ashtrays, cymbals and hotel reception bells, bring to mind an alternative brass band, or a quizzical audience, as they survey the rest of the exhibition and occasionally show their appreciation of it. Collectively titled ‘Parasols’ these figures resemble plants, mushrooms or umbrellas, referring to what Strunz has termed an ‘archaic form, the basis of a home, which shields a place, protecting it from the outside, perhaps from the sky, a flash, a divine light or an idea.’

Strunz works with the resonance of history, what she has called ‘aftermath’, and with the enfolding of time and space. Using outmoded curiosities, and employing various techniques, such as collage and mimesis, Strunz’s installations and sculptures act as trauma or memory; disrupting our linear perception of time.

The exhibition is supported by Goethe Institute London, Henry Moore Foundation, The Foyle Foundation and Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen.

Image: No title (S-89), 1967, Latex, cotton, rubber, Mr and Mrs Ronald B. Lynn, Westwood, NJ, 1979 © The Estate of Eva Hesse. Courtesy Hauser & Wirth

Press & Communications Officer
Elisa Ruff elisa.ruff@camdenartscentre.org

10 December 2009 05:45 pm - 06:30 pm
Briony Fer co-curator of Eva Hesse: Studiowork leads a tour of both exhibitions in conversation with Katja Strunz.

Camden Arts Centre
Arkwright Road London NW3 6DG UK
Opening times:
Tuesday-Sunday 10am-6pm
Wednesday 10am-9pm
Closed Mondays & Bank Holidays

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