KW69 # 5 “Nach Abschluss der Reise” by Eva-Maria Wild, with works by: Romane Holderried Kæsdorf, Tamayo Misawa, Henriette Grahnert, Anna Fasshauer, Ulrike Kuschel, Eva Seufert, Haaegue Yang, Corinne Wasmuht, annette hollywood, Suse Weber, Habima Fuch

KW69 # 5 "Nach Abschluss der Reise" by Eva-Maria Wild, with works by: Romane Holderried Kæsdorf, Tamayo Misawa, Henriette Grahnert, Anna Fasshauer, Ulrike Kuschel, Eva Seufert, Haaegue Yang, Corinne Wasmuht, annette hollywood, Suse Weber, Habima Fuchs April 14 –May 15, 2011, August Straße 69 D-10117 Berlin, by craniv boyd.

 

A collage behind glass on an A4 sheet, appears the most convenient point of departure when attempting to describe a group exhibition in a smallish sun filled cramped room, curated by an Frankfurt Am Main art dealer, Eva-Maria Wild, for the annex, or project space of Kunst Werke institute for Contemporary Art. A collection of artists whom with disparate small to mid scaled works on paper, the occasional sculpture or two, point, self referentially back to the collage character of curating that is un-seamless. Strange enough that in such a small room the individual artistic propositions develop an uncanny similarity or monotony of treatment. Yet refreshing in that the authorship of the art works exhibited is exclusively female.

 

Lets begin with the collage, titled Ohne title(Reisen), 1988-98, by German painter Corinne Wasmuht, it like her more United. Stateside known co-patriot, A. Oehlen, is a painter who makes collage from magazine clippings, with Wasmuht we have press photography of natural disasters set with other things in a kind of casual binary that is so matter of fact as to err towards true banality, Oehlen has more of a bad German boy approach to the ephemera that he sets together, Wasmuht to her credit has a tough heavy handed approach that, engenders more understanding for her large format abstract paintings, (regrettably, not on view in this edition of KW69 # 5 "Nach Abschluss der Reise" ) the temporary confusion induced by the date of this simple sketch like collage work, that in many ways looks like it could be created in ten seconds rather than ten years, points or gives a clue to a possible larger process driven imagery generative method, where the collage is a portable sketch on the way.

 

Auto I, 2010, by Tamayo Misawa, Japanese born artist, overwhelms the space partially obstructing the viewing area, and in its lightweight and biomorphic smooth oblong form, it is structurally oxymoronic, big shape perched on a narrow iron pole, freestanding like a large flattened flamingo. The cement and the Styrofoam give the work with its implied floating word connotations the portable capacity to standing alone, on its own with out toppling over, the cement or is it the plaster at the bottom is matter of fact, and at the same time, sketch like, inconvenienced and un-ideal, T. Misawa, we should hope would themselves hope for a more elegant solution for presenting ærodynamic looking non representational sculpture. Or one could think that it is all perfect as the artist wanted exactly, and that the visibility of what keeps the work from falling over is a way of underscoring its incompleteness flaws or study feeling.

 

Habima Fuchs, Czech born artist, with materials though times honored in the arts of humanity appear bizarrely exotic in the realm of current art, glazed ceramic, in the work titled Entwurf der Welt nach Habima Fuchs (Fragment), 2009, speaks to that occasional megalomaniac desire that creative people at times commonly posses, like in Where the Wild things Are, 2009 Spike Jonze's film adaptation of M. Sendak's illustrated children's book, Max, enlists the wild things large imaginary forces to build a city. In the tame and æsthetic if not innocuous fragment or module on pedestal, we have a model castle a small fortress with frosting colored walls, the word as a piece of cake, this small moment of visionary creative act is not threatening because of its scale, yet like many of the works in the group exhibition, we a public of sorts cull the impression that these are sketches, proposals for artworks, rushed out of the studio in an attempt to secure more funding for larger more difficult, inaccessible, and complete works with sublime, if not threatening statements.  Seeing Habima Fuchs's fragment of a proposal for the world according to the author, I rather, am left impatiently waiting, asking my self where is that world?

 

Romane Holderried Kæsdorf, (1922-2007) with drawings that are examples from a long term activity as an artist, evinced by the dates of the drawings, 1969-2002, are all naïve, touch upon the outsider art, however are thoroughly expressionistic, perhaps a kind of cultivated edginess, her drawings are collected, one out of the six works is in a museum the remainder are in a Private collection. Her work has a sealed off quality, completeness and one wonders if there is not a student teacher bond between Kæsdorf, and the artists who are in the other brighter room. The title "after the termination of the giant" is in homage to a late woman German artist, who some hold, bears connexion to more internationally celebrated and represented G. Grosz, or later generation G. Baselitz. One sees oddly enough even with sketchy drawings the difference between the seriousness deliberation and maturity of an artistic hand. by craniv boyd.