OLIVER DIGNAL, PAULINA GIMPEL

Opening: Friday, 17.06.2016, 7 pm

Exhibition: 18.06. – 09.07.2016

OLIVER DIGNAL

With the exhibition Karaoke Hills the 2014 work So wie die Dinge liegen ... finds its continuation.

So wie die Dinge liegen ... deals with the increasingly frayed concept of nature. Contrary to an attempt at exposing a valid concept of nature, this work sets out from the question of how “nature” is communicated.

 In the first part of the work the examination of the concept of nature took on the form of diorama-like, photographed landscapes presented in lightboxes. Image modes from zoological picture books were screened, and rocks, seen on film in a sorting process, debunked to be serialized replications.

Now, in the sequel, mineral probes are encountered which, however, do not represent any indication of some region or geological era; in point of fact they are an agglomeration of sprayed-on coats of granite-effect lacquer. Hence the seemingly rock-like chippings were, in reverse sequence, applied layer upon layer prior to being “mined”.

No less artificial is the hotel frontage photographed in Las Vegas which, amidst the cluster of mock-ups of exotic locations and attractions, appears to faithfully emulate the very scenery surrounding that city anyway.

Furthermore, visitors face something like an oversized brush case, yet one which holds die-cast flowers, their bottom ends fitted with metal dart points. The simple combination of objects insinuates association by the viewer with an instruction of sorts. Alluding to landscape painting, this “nature to go” offers the potential for readily generating - more or less accidentally emerging -scenery.

The scarecrow on exhibition doesn’t really live up to its name, as the all-over prints on its garments are designed such that they could near seamlessly blend with the scenery depicted by them. Its essential function, namely to perturb, is perverted; the relation of culture to nature, and the concept of a photographic point of view, is commented on.

PAULINA GIMPEL

In the exhibition Karaoke Hills Paulina Gimpel presents a series of embroidered images. A continuous thread runs from image to image, connects and underlines the otherwise free-floating text passages.

The gauze used for a canvas allows for the embroidery’s backside with its loosely hanging threads - links between the letters that are otherwise invisible - to shine through. The individual sentence fragments at times seem to be in direct conjunction; yet a moment later that conjunction dissolves again.

As in other of her works, for this work, too, letters serve as a template. This time these are excerpts from the collection Letters of Ted Hughes. The letter as that which remains, the traces left are stored in boxes, or forgotten between book pages. The embroidered images show the trace the artist left behind herself, lifted from the book.