| Galerie Michael Janssen Berlin: Tine Furler - Vererbungslinie Vampyropoda Gerard Hemsworth - Now Then - 17 Jan 2009 to 11 Apr 2009 Current Exhibition | ||||
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Tine Furler - Vererbungslinie Vampyropoda Installation View Galerie Michael Janssen Berlin | |||
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| Tine Furler - Vererbungslinie Vampyropoda Gerard Hemsworth - Now Then January 17 � February 28 2009 Extended to April 11th, 2009 Opening Friday, January 16 2009, 7 � 9 pm Tine Furler - Vererbungslinie Vampyropoda Tine Furler's pictures constitute large-scale photo collages on painted backgrounds. The protagonists of these most recent works are misfits. Here, disparate beings are united in a single body, defying the observer�s natural expectations in the process. Alliances are made which simply disregard temporal and natural boundaries. Furler has chosen the title VEREBUNGSLINIE VAMPYROPODA (VAMPYROPODA HERITAGE LINE) for the current exhibition at the Michael Janssen Gallery. The giant octopus (Vampyropoda) spreads its eight arms out evenly, these are all of equal length and strength. This picture is intended as a symbol for the way in which heritage processes take place in a natural setting. The coalescent genetic characteristics determine the phenomenon�s final form in equal measure. All creatures exist simultaneously, defying every spatial and temporal definition. A male head, adorned with a pair of sunglasses, is placed atop a female body dressed in garments from the Rococo period, complete with overhanging hooped skirt. In this large-scale picture, entitled Burgherren (Lords of the Castle) (200 x 400 cm), the castle's probable owners have been dressed in more or less elegant female attire and lined up for a fashion show. The meandering path to the medieval residence functions as a red carpet, on which the gentlemen appear to feel ill at ease, something which could be due to their high-heeled shoes or narrow corsets. Children play a notable role in Tine Furler's new works. Tightly bound together, as if caught in a cocoon, they appear rather dissatisfied. They gaze at the observer through a magnified eye, triggering a combination of discomfort and sympathy. A well-nourished child, which probably emanated from a Baroque painting where it stood at the side of the Mother of God, lends its body to an angry wolf, helping it attain regal dignity. Tine Furler finds the models for all her photo collages in posters, newspaper cuttings and / or cardboard cut-outs. Instead of canvas, Furler uses wood to frame her works, which she transforms into painted backgrounds. She usually paints these in shades of dark brown, black and purple, which intensify the pictures' disturbing auras. Tine Furler (*1972 in Offenburg, Germany) lives and works in Berlin. She co-founded the D�sseldorf-based artists� collective 'Hobbypop' with Sophie von Hellermann, Markus Vater and Thea Djordjaze in the late 1990s and has participated in shows including the 3rd Prague Biennale in 2007. We look forward to presenting Tine Furler�s first solo exhibition in Berlin at the Michael Janssen Gallery in January 2009. Gerard Hemsworth - Now Then The new pictures exhibited by Gerard Hemsworth at the Michael Janssen Gallery resemble oversized scenes from a comic book. This genre has its own definite, distinctive language of signs. The painted objects are minimalist in their conception. Clouds, mushrooms, grass and the figures themselves emerge via just a few brushstrokes. The art of comic sketching, also known simply as Comic, has not enjoyed great prominence in museums until now. Painters only found recognition when they challenged convention and transferred this form of expression onto their canvases. The relationship between the representatives of Pop Art, such as Roy Lichtenstein, and Gerard Hemsworth is unmistakable. The protagonists of the picture Now Then are two little pigs, which are both clinging to parts of a tattered teddy bear, weeping as they do so. The scene elicits sympathy for the childlike motif. Despite the putatively simple interpretation, the impression that there is perhaps more to the image than meets the eye persists. This is a common element of Hemsworth�s pictures. A certain unease is generated by the invisible, leaving the observer with a sense of an unspoken threat. For example, the work entitled Can you keep a secret shows a childlike figure hidden beneath an enormous mushroom, looking at its reflection in a hand mirror and sheltering from the rain, which is suggested by the white vertical lines. Although observers may strive to share in the secret referred to in the work�s title, they are disappointed. The picture is dominated by an indefinable metallic grey, which leads us to suspect that we may be dealing with a bleak truth which can, at most, be entrusted to one�s own reflection. Hemsworth prepares his canvases by dying them in meticulously selected shades. In a subsequent step, he uses adhesive tape to attach stencils to the surface of the image. When the tape is removed, the linear contours which are characteristic of his works emerge. This method, combined with his perfectionism, lend the works something serial and yet abstract, which can be seen in pictures such as Frightened Rabbit. Lines merge to form patterns and symbols, such as blades of grass, and are repeated at regular intervals. Here, the motif is merely suggested; several interpretations are possible. Gerard Hemsworth (*1945 in London) holds the posts of Professor of Fine Art and Director of Postgraduate Studies at Goldsmiths College in London. His pictures have been exhibited at international galleries and institutions, including the Institute of Contemporary Arts and the Tate Gallery in London since the beginning of his career in the mid-1960s. We look forward to presenting the first solo exhibition of Gerard Hemsworth�s works at the Michael Janssen Gallery in Berlin in January 2009. | ||||
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