Johannes Wald
05 - 27 Mar 2010
JOHANNES WALD
Demouler la grace
February 5 - March 27, 2010
Opening: Friday, February 5, 2010, 6 – 9 pm
Konrad Fischer Gallery Berlin is pleased to announce the opening of the 4th exhibition of the series Fischer oben (1st floor space) with the exhibition démouler la grâce by the artist Johannes Wald.
For several years Johannes Wald (born 1980) has been addressing essential questions through his work regarding sculpture. When can a work be considered as completed? Can the process of the making of the work, the realizing of its form, be preserved within the final work? Could a longing for grace and beauty, a desire to animate the material still be considered a credible motivation of an artist’s work today?
Placed on a rack with different levels we find several gypsum molds in an incoherent sequence. They are obviously negative forms, which are being used to cast the shapes of clay models, in order to allow the pouring of the form with bronze or another more noble material. Normally these molds are not seen as they have to be destroyed during the casting process. Several b/w-photographs clarify the nature of the molds showing a double exposure of the image of a classic clay head portrait overexposed by an image of the mold containing the head’s negative form. It becomes clear that the molds which themselves hold remarkable aesthetic qualities are only intermediate steps towards a goal which no longer seems interesting enough for the artist to pursue. Thus they indicate an unfinished process which demands a deeper level of reflection from the viewer than any, even perfect, imitation of classic beauty ever could.
In the vestibule adjoining the installation we find a small sheet of paper with a text describing a strangely dense, forged metal object – a perfect sculpture. At first sight it feels strange that the artist is only able to come close to such a work through the medium of language given the intense materiality of the installation he shows next door. But here as there perfection exists only within the head, as an idea – be it articulated through language or grasped through the forms in front of us.
Demouler la grace
February 5 - March 27, 2010
Opening: Friday, February 5, 2010, 6 – 9 pm
Konrad Fischer Gallery Berlin is pleased to announce the opening of the 4th exhibition of the series Fischer oben (1st floor space) with the exhibition démouler la grâce by the artist Johannes Wald.
For several years Johannes Wald (born 1980) has been addressing essential questions through his work regarding sculpture. When can a work be considered as completed? Can the process of the making of the work, the realizing of its form, be preserved within the final work? Could a longing for grace and beauty, a desire to animate the material still be considered a credible motivation of an artist’s work today?
Placed on a rack with different levels we find several gypsum molds in an incoherent sequence. They are obviously negative forms, which are being used to cast the shapes of clay models, in order to allow the pouring of the form with bronze or another more noble material. Normally these molds are not seen as they have to be destroyed during the casting process. Several b/w-photographs clarify the nature of the molds showing a double exposure of the image of a classic clay head portrait overexposed by an image of the mold containing the head’s negative form. It becomes clear that the molds which themselves hold remarkable aesthetic qualities are only intermediate steps towards a goal which no longer seems interesting enough for the artist to pursue. Thus they indicate an unfinished process which demands a deeper level of reflection from the viewer than any, even perfect, imitation of classic beauty ever could.
In the vestibule adjoining the installation we find a small sheet of paper with a text describing a strangely dense, forged metal object – a perfect sculpture. At first sight it feels strange that the artist is only able to come close to such a work through the medium of language given the intense materiality of the installation he shows next door. But here as there perfection exists only within the head, as an idea – be it articulated through language or grasped through the forms in front of us.