Erinna König
until 16.08.2020
Curated by Dieter Schwarz
On entering Erinna König’s exhibition at the Skulpturenhalle, we are met with a strangely familiar setting: mirror, chair, bed, curtains and other home comforts. The works are based on pictorial and sculptural formats. Yet these are neither paintings nor sculptures. These are threedimensional works, whereby what appears to be painterly also transpires to be material. There is always some object there as the basis for the artist’s thoughts and her compositional approach.
Throughout the exhibition, there are recurring elements; three columns, three calligraphies, three masks, all in dialogue with each other across the room through their diversity of form. What they have in common is that they are, in their component parts, based on found objects. These component parts are integrated into the work in such a way that the starting point can barely be discerned. The relationships between them explain nothing. Nor is facticity all that remains. König observes the world, is struck by certain things, and endeavours to think them through – objectifying the experience, while at the same time protecting the enigma that surrounds them. She defines the elements of a work meticulously and seeks out unusual technical processes to create it. The spectrum of materials is broad and rarely repetitious.
The calligraphies displayed like signs oscillate between the decipherable and the freely arabesque, in a similar vein as the pitch-black Schatten (Shadows) objects on the wall. The characters appeal to the eye. As do the folds of the pink terry cloth, in which we might discern a face, as in the fabric-clad Nacht (Night). Erinna König’s works do not narrate a cohesive story, nor do they pose a puzzle that might be solved. The found objects form a multi-faceted image, or metaphor, in which all the parts form a previously unseen whole.
Dieter Schwarz
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Sponsored by Kunststiftung NRW
