Lullin + Ferrari

Edit Oderbolz

27 Aug - 22 Oct 2011

© Edit Oderbolz
Air (detail), 2011
Armoring iron, paint, in 10 parts, size variable and 2 See I Sea, 2011
Oil paint on MDF, in 2 parts, 133 x 52 x 2.1 cm
EDIT ODERBOLZ
And all you touch and all you see
27 August – 22 October 2011

We are very pleased to show new works by Edit Oderbolz (*1966) in her first solo exhibition in our gallery. The title of the show And all you touch and all you see reflects the ambition of Edit Oderbolz: The artist presents an all-embracing installation, which follows an exact dramaturgy and visualises her huge sense for the use of material. With several interventions Edit Oderbolz alters the perception of the gallery space and sharpens the attentiveness of the viewer.
An upside-down placed mirror dominates the first space of the gallery and enlarges through its reflection, in a nearly cinematic way, the space. Through the position of the mirror on a wedge it receives a scuptural quality. The title of the work, Corridor alludes to the fugitive character of the reflected daily life. The work See I Sea is positioned on the short wall of the entrance space. Two vertical MDF-boards, overpainted with black and blue oil paint, are touching the floor and are therefore positioned in such a way, that they seem to represent a small door. Similar in height the small fictious door relates to the work Corridor. But contrary to Corridor, pointing through the reflection of the mirror out of the work, See I Sea develops through its changeable tactile surface a pull, immersing the viewer into the work. The immediate semantic attribution of the blue and black painted boards as a small door is questioned by the title of the work. The title also contravenes curiously to the vertical conceived work; as lakes and the sea always run horizontal. Opposite of See I Sea a small lively wire construction is placed. The work moves in the wind and refers to the large installation in the following room.
In this room the installation Air, the central piece of the show, is displayed. The work consists of ten armouring irons, individually curved and subsequently painted by the artist. The six meter long armouring irons have been positioned on different heights and create with varied swings an impressive drawing in space. The protruding metal lines hold the character of an energetic, even spastic movement, which has been miraculously brought to an immovable standstill. The high position in the gallery space lends the „sculptural drawings“ a singular dignity. With her interest for the line in space in sculpture Edit Oderbolz is not on her own: beside others Marcel Duchamp, Gordon MattaClark and Fred Sandback have been intrigued by this question.
The lines offer volumes, whose perception is through the movement of the beholder constantly shifting. Through her approach Edit Oderbolz eliminates the weight of her sculptures and lends them a delicate lightness. In doing so she considers the peculiarity of the exhibition space as a passage space: The metallic lines are more condensed in the back area of the exhibition towards the office space. On the left hand side of the main exhibition space a second work of Sea I See is attached. This duplication of the apparent small door draws a bow to the first room of the gallery and has through its miniaturisation the effect that the armouring irons seem even more powerful.
IIn the office space Edit Oderbolz has made subtle interventions: The two works Loose (grey) and Loose (blue) are each made of a pair of triangles, which can be placed accordingly to each other taking each time the environmental space into account. These loose ways of presentation gives the works their titles. They are harassers, parasites or punctuation marks, which are interfering with the real space of the beholder. These objects are no paintings – albeit they are painted and their painted texture is visible – but sculptural objects, which establish an indexical reference to the wallspace. As always with the works and installations of Edit Oderbolz the viewer gets the magical impression that all elements are at the right place and can only be be placed where they are.Edit Oderbolz born 1966 in Stein am Rhein (CH), lives and works in Basel 2008 Studio grant Rotterdam, NL, Christoph Merian Stiftung, Basel; 2007 Grant of the Kanton Schaffhausen; 2004 Manor art price, City of Basel; 2003 Studio grant in Berlin, City of Basel; 1996-1999 Hochschule für Bildende Kunst HGK Basel.
Since 2002 numerous solo- and group exhibition in Switzerland and abroad, amongst others. Art Basel, Statement; Kulturstiftung Schloss Agathenburg; Kunsthalle Basel; Museum für Gegenwartskunst Basel; Kunsthaus Langenthal; Poppy Sebire Gallery, London; Centre d‘art d‘Ivry, Ivry-sur-Seine, Paris; Center for Contemporary Art Warschau
 

Tags: Marcel Duchamp, Edit Oderbolz, Fred Sandback