Text curated by Hlynur Hallsson 15. Oktober -17. Dezember 2011 Kuckei+Kuckei Linienstraße 158 10115 Berlin, DE.by craniv boyd.

Text curated by Hlynur Hallsson 15. Oktober -17. Dezember 2011 Kuckei+Kuckei  with Birgir Andrésson, Dieter Roth, Guðný Rósa Ingimarsdóttir, Haraldur Jónsson, Hlynur Hallsson, Hreinn Freðfinnsson, Jóna Hlíf Halldórsdóttir, Jón Laxdal Halldórsson, Karin Sander, Karlotta Blöndal, Knut Eckstein, Kristján Guðmundsson, Lawrence Weiner, Libia Castro/ Ólafur Ólafsson, Margarét Blöndal, Roni Horn, Sigurður Guðmundsson, Unnar Örn Auðarson. Linienstraße 158 10115 Berlin, DE.by craniv boyd. 

For a taste of the cold north of Iceland, in Berlin center city,Text, an exhibition curated by Icelandic artist, Hlynur Hallsson, provided the goods. Art by artists with some connexion to Iceland, either through citizenship or professional affiliation, was put on view in an intimate ground floor gallery space on Linien street. 

Hlynur Hallsson, curated an exhibition, and with his Text, as with many times when artists curate an exposition of art, they seldom forget to exclude themselves from the show. Lawrence Weiner, the American painter who switched early on in his art career to the written word, painted on a wall, is here. the late Birgir Andrésson is also represented with a trypthic of, serigraphs, that are descriptive prose paragraph as portraiture. 

Icelandic artist Haraldur Jónsson, has an artwork made from vulcanized rubber gloves used in fish processing plants, hanging on a nail with white words written on them. Adjectives and a word soup, cover the functional gloving, that would normally guard working hands, from aquatic entrails. His art is evocative of daydreaming or woolgathering, associated with tedious, seasonal work. Haraldur Jónsson, is perhaps a member of one of the last generations of Icelander, who as teenagers, worked in the fish factories, because the fish were still close off the shore line.  

Quirky presentations of type written text on blue paper, stained with oil, hung up with pink tape are, Margarét Blöndal's contribution, and all-tough many artists working today, and self describing themselves as contemporary artists work with the written word, printed on an A4 sheet of paper, in short, on a text piece, Margarét Blöndal, has art that is mysteriously Icelandic, in the additive combination, of oil+paper+pink,tape that equals strange. The anti retinal or work under the influence of fluxus, is somehow subverted by a minor attention to materials.

Like Birgir Andrésson , and Kristján Guðmundsson , Libia Castro/ Ólafur Ólafsson, are additional artists participating in a showing of contemporary art in a smaller gallery, who are alumni of the Venice Biennial. Artist who have all represented their nation at the national pavilion, in Venice Italy. Iceland, with its position as a small nation, makes the likelihood of when a survey exhibition, of selected current art occurs, that participating artist would also be, artists who, were at the Venice biennial. Libia Castro/ Ólafur Ólafsson have a Text artwork, originally displayed in Istanbul, titled ...ITNARAGON... of 2003, that spells the name of a prominent Turkish bank backwards with the small two letter word "NO" in front of it. The ephemeral nature of high risk venture capital and investment banking is underscored in the banner or large letter-forms, by Libia Castro/ Ólafur Ólafsson, that are comprised of post it notes placed directly on the edifice of Kuckei + Kuckei, out of doors. The post it stationary, perhaps much used in corporate office work, for minor decisions, and endless to do lists, bespeak shaky foundations in the finance sector, and personal accountability, of the investment banking personnel. The adroit social commentary of Libia Castro/ Ólafur Ólafsson , from the year of 2003, is now more poignant in light of the tremors, in the Global economy in recent years and Bankruptcy of the Nation of Iceland, in 2008.

 

The weakest art, and therefore, the most visually unpleasant, in the exhibition of text based art, is the work of German artist Karin Sander. A hodgepodge scatter or random hanging of framed drawings, that looked like automatic writing authored by a lazy surrealist armed with a set of Swahili, Sanskrit and Hebrew dictionaries. Words in an ad hock, loose associative jumble in a shaky penmanship. Karin Sander's contribution was an unfortunate selection, because it is a bad art work that offers little in the way of inspiration. One thing that could have helped Text curated by Hlynur Hallsson, would have been, had he left the wall where she showed her work blank. For a blank wall might have loosened up the at times, visually cramped gallery space on Linien street. by craniv boyd.