Glen Rubsamen
14 Nov - 23 Dec 2008
GLEN RUBSAMEN
"All The Time in The World"
14.11.2008 - 23.12.2008
We are glad to present new works by Glen Rubsamen in his second solo exhibition in our gallery. Rubsamen investigates the implementation of immensity, as well as the concept of immensity under the title “All The Time In The World” with a series of oil paintings and two video projections.
Setting contrasts in a dialogical relationship to one another, and synchronising them within an intentional pictoral rhythm is a central aspect of Rubsamen’s work. In the paintings he is showing in our gallery he proceeds from the idea that the concept of immensity cannot be located in an object, but reveals itself in the form of poetry. The atmospherical, formally created in Rubsamen’s paintings by the layering of muted colour shades, constitutes the basis of his painting, in which the scenically applied storyline is surrounded by an effortless yet precise lyricism.
In the painting “I’ve brought you a friend II”, the artist creates a composition of the images of two palm trees and two lampposts, shadow-like silhouettes, diagonally aligned on a pastel background. The directionality of the painting’s figures, seemingly fleeing from the picture’s interior and thus referring beyond it, as well as their incarnate rendering makes them appear to be actors on the stage of a shadow theatre, moving away from the picture plane, towards an undefined space.
In the video work entitled “An abstraction come true” the viewer encounters a seemingly endless herd of antelope passing in front of a lone palm tree; this constant, repetitive movement suggestively involves the viewer in the condition of immensity. Accompanied by a looped surf-rock song, this piece follows a line of movement directed towards infinity, which reinterprets the process of time stretching, and translates it as a parabolical entity in the juxtaposition of progressive time and static space.
In the video work entitled “ Sundowners” Rubsamen filmed the Chapman’s Baobab in North-Eastern Botswana, one of the largest trees on earth, during the course of sunset. Here the artist shows the viewer a situational scene, which, however, does not seem foreign: One sees the tree’s contours gradually dissolve, disappearing in the degressive contrast between the afterglow and the night’s darkness.
In this work Glen Rubsamen refers to a conscious and staged contemplation of grandeur, which has established itself as a social ritual in the form of the traditional ‘cocktail hour’. The collective outdoor viewing of a natural spectacle, accompanied by conversation, is captured cinematographically by Rubsamen as an almost motionless image in the medium of film.
With the combination of painting and film that Glen Rubsamen presents in this exhibition, he proposes a distinction between the suspension of time (in his paintings) and the suspension of space (in his videos). His works in “All The Time In The World” stand for immensity as the movement of a condition, and furthermore prove that both time and space are truly under the domination of the image.
Glen Rubsamen – Zoe Miller – Christina Irrgang
"All The Time in The World"
14.11.2008 - 23.12.2008
We are glad to present new works by Glen Rubsamen in his second solo exhibition in our gallery. Rubsamen investigates the implementation of immensity, as well as the concept of immensity under the title “All The Time In The World” with a series of oil paintings and two video projections.
Setting contrasts in a dialogical relationship to one another, and synchronising them within an intentional pictoral rhythm is a central aspect of Rubsamen’s work. In the paintings he is showing in our gallery he proceeds from the idea that the concept of immensity cannot be located in an object, but reveals itself in the form of poetry. The atmospherical, formally created in Rubsamen’s paintings by the layering of muted colour shades, constitutes the basis of his painting, in which the scenically applied storyline is surrounded by an effortless yet precise lyricism.
In the painting “I’ve brought you a friend II”, the artist creates a composition of the images of two palm trees and two lampposts, shadow-like silhouettes, diagonally aligned on a pastel background. The directionality of the painting’s figures, seemingly fleeing from the picture’s interior and thus referring beyond it, as well as their incarnate rendering makes them appear to be actors on the stage of a shadow theatre, moving away from the picture plane, towards an undefined space.
In the video work entitled “An abstraction come true” the viewer encounters a seemingly endless herd of antelope passing in front of a lone palm tree; this constant, repetitive movement suggestively involves the viewer in the condition of immensity. Accompanied by a looped surf-rock song, this piece follows a line of movement directed towards infinity, which reinterprets the process of time stretching, and translates it as a parabolical entity in the juxtaposition of progressive time and static space.
In the video work entitled “ Sundowners” Rubsamen filmed the Chapman’s Baobab in North-Eastern Botswana, one of the largest trees on earth, during the course of sunset. Here the artist shows the viewer a situational scene, which, however, does not seem foreign: One sees the tree’s contours gradually dissolve, disappearing in the degressive contrast between the afterglow and the night’s darkness.
In this work Glen Rubsamen refers to a conscious and staged contemplation of grandeur, which has established itself as a social ritual in the form of the traditional ‘cocktail hour’. The collective outdoor viewing of a natural spectacle, accompanied by conversation, is captured cinematographically by Rubsamen as an almost motionless image in the medium of film.
With the combination of painting and film that Glen Rubsamen presents in this exhibition, he proposes a distinction between the suspension of time (in his paintings) and the suspension of space (in his videos). His works in “All The Time In The World” stand for immensity as the movement of a condition, and furthermore prove that both time and space are truly under the domination of the image.
Glen Rubsamen – Zoe Miller – Christina Irrgang