Opening march 12th 2010 , 6-9 pm
Duration: 12.3.2010 - 24.4.2010
In the exhibition tour d'horizon we are presenting the french artist Corinne Laroche and the berlin based artist Malte Spohr. Both artists distinguish themselves through strong structural and analytical concepts, in which they are, each in their own way, thematizing ranges of visual aspects and their ranges of insights through perception.
Both artists are using templates of photos, which they are editing digitally before they transfer the motive to the paper. Through the translation of the picture into formalized basic elements, like boxes or lines, an alienation of the original picture is initiated by a reflective process. The new emerged compositions are free from expressive gestures or graphic virtuosity. They reveal the texture of things, which appears abstract but in the same time is illustrating the quality of raw matter. The strictness of the arrangement of lines and boxes dissolves. The structures resign themselves to the image and turn into a vital pattern that scatters irregular on the sheet.
Malte Spohr is in his drawings placing the lines with a ruler, continuously row after row, from the top to the bottom. The motive develops through raising and lowering his pencil and the pressure he puts on it. By this technique he avoids a classical composition based on contours and shades, that would dictate the reading of the shapes. The observed motive stays unfocused, and on the chosen panorama horizontal format it reminds of landscapes or materials. As if being lost in thought or the retinal image that for a short moment remains on the inside of the eye after turning away from a strong light. The drawings contain something amorphous, that seem to arrange itself to a motive but vanishes again instantly.
The structures of Corinne Laroche appear more definite and organized. Her motives seem oversized and in this way pixeld. The fields are spreading from a center. Through the expansion and concentration it creates a dramaturgy that counteracts the _expression of randomness. The exhibited works are counter posed with their own negative image. This accentuates that it is neither about disorganized shapes, nor about inflexible, logarithmical spreadsheets or grids. A matrix is remaining, which is fixating the original motive but does not define it.
The Motives are constructed bit by bit by the artists, and are neither following strict rules nor are coincidences. They are the result of a detailed observation and investigation of things, that are appearing unique in one of their details or in a brief moment. The artists are approaching the themes in a very intimate way, through examining the things in their deep structure: As if the artists would observe the phenomenon in its full spectrum and thereafter just approach fragments of it. They are establishing only a part of reality and detach the motives from their usual context. The monotonous and continuous lines and fields are getting dictated by the adaption of the photos and completed with an astonishing meticulousness. Like in a meditative process, the works emerge over time. First misconceived as an abstract pattern, the motives hereafter reveal themselves as an intelligent analysis of the complex structures of things and their perception, which is to be discovered.
