exhibition being part of « OFF JOYA » 2015
To Recover - Klimt02 Gallery
Opening : 7 October from 19 h.
(Ted Noten Superbitch Bag, 2000 / Superbitch Bag Revisited, 2015)
Artist list Simon Cottrell — Karl Fritsch — Gésine Hackenberg — Karin Johansson — Jiro Kamata — Sari Liimatta — Stefano Marchetti — Ted Noten — Noon Passama – Annelies Planteydt — Tore Svensson — Lisa Walker — Manon van Kouswijk
Manon van Kouswijk Pearl Grey necklace, 2008 / Pearl Grey Revisited necklace, 2015 Glass elements (saucer, hand formed cup handle with attached glass beads), diverse glass and plastic beads, polyester thread, glue. New work designed for Klimt02 Gallery in occasion of the exhibition To Recover, Barcelona, October 2015
The original « Pearl Grey » of 2009 was an assemblage work consisting of found and made elements of porcelain, glass, wood, plastic and pearl. It referenced a traditional cup and saucer of which the cup had been magically replaced by a bead necklace. For this new work I have translated that idea to the typology of a glass ‘saucer and cup’. It is again a combination of found and made elements but this time the work is completely transparent; almost like an x-ray of it’s predecessor
Gésine Hackenberg Still Life, 2009 / Pink Balancing Glass brooch, 2015 Glass by Theresienthal, silver New work designed for Klimt02 Gallery in occasion of the exhibition To Recover, Barcelona, October 2015
The ‘Still Life’ Brooches that I have made between 2009 and 2012 can be seen as a contemporary interpretation of 17th and 18th century Dutch Still Life paintings. This subject was preferable used to portray items of daily life that were emotionally and economically significant for people of that time. Within my ‘Still Lifes’, I sliced existing glasswork and rearranged them into new compositions. They represented a perfect translation of the three dimensional to the two dimensional, the realistic vista of the glasses to the medium of jewellery. The body is taking on the role of the canvas as it were… Within the new work I explored another way of looking at tableware than in a static composition: I wanted to express a certain precarious dynamic that is inherent to drinking glasses during a sociable meal. I tried to catch this moment of a glass tumbling, undecided yet if it is going to fall or stay upright.
Sari Liimatta But I love Him object, 2005 / But they don´t love him pendant, 2015 Glass beads, metal link, thread (polyamide), a plastic toy New work designed for Klimt02 Gallery in occasion of the exhibition To Recover, Barcelona, October 2015
Just as men are not just men, and women just women, meat is never just meat. It has it´s past and origin, a story which is so often simply forgotten. Living creatures which are very much alive until they are nothing more than materials, for those who still choose to use them. Even the life before their death is so often more than problematic, as we all know. As we all know.
Annelies Planteijdt Beautiful City – Pink Stairs necklace, 2001 / Beautiful City-Pink Stairs Black Crystal necklace, 2015 Gold, Tantalum, pigment New work designed for Klimt02 Gallery in occasion of the exhibition To Recover, Barcelona, October 2015
I started to re-consider a piece from 2001, that never has been sold, although I liked it very much, ‘Beautiful City – Pink Stairs’. This piece is really symmetrical, so I decided to look for a way to separate it in two parts and finish both parts in a different way, in order to get two different pieces. I have re-collected parts of other (unsold) pieces from about the same time (1999 and 2000) and have been re-approaching and re-thinking them: I made ‘Crystals’ with them, like I did in my most recent work. So I have been mixing time and thinking. And size: the sizes I used earlier were different from the sizes I used in the later ‘Beautiful City’ series, they wouldn’t have fit. But because the ‘Crystals’ are liquid (they adapt to the square) the size of the elements was not importantanymore. So I could re-take these old pieces into the new time now, I have re-used them, re-connected them.
This ‘expansion’ offered me more possibilities: I re-used the material I already had without loss of material or time. The possibility to re-make the old pieces still exists. And it gave me two new pieces. So I multiplied my possibilities. A new life.
Noon Passama Formal Research – A necklace, 2015 / Formal Research – H rings, 2015 Rigid clay, silver, gold New work designed for Klimt02 Gallery in occasion of the exhibition To Recover, Barcelona, October 2015
Formal Research – A necklace (2015) composing of six chain units is the starting point of the group of six rings. A closed-end loop of each ring was divided in sections, one / two / three /… / six, by the difference between the fat and thin parts. The works were made under the following keywords: dividing / sequencing / sizing.
Formal Research initially focused on one classical type of jewellery: the chain. The project is mainly about the form of each connecting chain unit and how the unit connects to its neighbours.
During the sculpting process, the shapes were transformed because of them being in the hand and through time. I did not edit the outcomes and will present the rings as they are. The try-outs are the finals and vice versa.
Stefano Marchetti Untitled brooch, 2007 / Untitled Revisited brooch, 2015 Silver, silver and titan powder, epoxy resin New work designed for Klimt02 Gallery in occasion of the exhibition To Recover, Barcelona, October 2015.:
In the Nineties, in the making of the older brooch, my goal was to control the metal, to have the metal do whatever I wanted. In this latest brooch, made a few days ago, I let instead the metal take control over myself, and let it take me wherever its will would go.
Tore Svensson Mr. T brooch, 2011 / Mr. T Revisited brooch, 2015 (5 different versions) Veneer wood, acrylic paint, silver New work designed for Klimt02 Gallery in occasion of the exhibition To Recover, Barcelona, October 2015
The reason why I chosen my self-portrait, is that it is probably one of my most well known pieces of jewellery. It is made in steel and etched. The material and techniques I mostly work with. For the Re-version I saw out the silhouette in 2 mm veneer, divided the image in 3 parts and painted them in similar but for each piece different colours, before I glued them together. The fact that they are divided in three parts, with the dark sawing-line between, gives them a comic-like impression.
This impression is even emphasised by the bigger size, which is possible by the lightness of the material, and is completely different from the original steel-one. While the surface of the steel-portrait and other previous work was the key technology for building the image, the colour for some years been a part of my jewellery.
To revisit, remake, salvage, reinterpret, adapt, convert, converse, rethink…
Why have we asked some of the artists we work with as gallery owners to reinterpret one of their works? We could say it’s because we’re interested in talking about time. And by “revisiting” we mean discussing the notion of time. But in what way? That’s the question.
Time passes, it is made, interpreted, felt and suffered, it escapes, drifts away, becomes trapped or stretched, sometimes it is intelligently ignored and, why not, it is exercised. Reinterpreting a work, a fiction or precis is a way of addressing time, a way of exploring a landscape in order to try and understand it. And we thought this exercise would provide an interesting opportunity to discuss time.
Revisiting in order to reflect… an exercise for the artist.
Are there any changes in these artists’ works? Should there be? Is time involved? Without a shadow of a doubt, the answer is yes. But that barely scrapes the surface of what we want to know.
We’re more likely to find out what we want to know if the work enables us to answer questions such as: What kind of time is involved? Is there any usefulness? Is there any spirituality? Are there any aesthetics? Is there any abstraction? Is there any progress?
The exhibition is also designed to be understood through an analysis of the different types of answers provided by the works as a whole. As you will see, there are answers that simplify, offering minor changes, non-answers, coherent answers (if you have prior knowledge of the artist’s trajectory), inspired answers, uninventive answers… As we have said, evaluating the “revisits” as a whole provides additional knowledge.
When it comes down to it, what we most value is the sensation we observe and feel when the artist takes some distance and moves away from the centre stage in an attempt to provide an answer. As observers, we believe this circumstance helps to achieve universality and thus provide an intellectual satisfaction, that of communicating and objectifying the creation to the full in order to express and play with a more authentic reality.
Revisiting in order to look afresh… the viewer’s exercise.
We switch from observation to understanding, and vice versa. We observe in order to find differences between similar things and we understand when we find similarities between different things. Accustomed as we are today to viewing several pieces in a highly random fashion, pausing to stop in order to take a fresh look at a work “inaugurated” some time ago is another exercise we wish to propose. This exercise may help us assimilate better in this era of accumulation and, on occasions, superficiality. There can be no doubt that the way in which a work attracts and engages us is based on the knowledge we may have of it.
Knowledge without criticism is an indication of the end of everything. Yet, on the other hand, what can be said of criticism without knowledge? Are we capable of enjoying what these workers of art offer us? Will we be capable of evaluating what they show us? Can we offer knowledge-based criticism? Frankly, we find there is a lack of humility on the part of the viewer. And we’re all viewers.
Let’s enjoy this opportunity.
Klimt02 Gallery
Riera de Sant Miquel 65
08006 - Barcelona
Monday to Friday / 11 -14 and 16-19 h.
