The exhibition Gregarious Approximations brings together the work of three artists that attempt to reveal or enact as an extension, replacement, displacement and disentanglement, through complementary approaches.
Although at the first glance Emma Howes’s video Stage Directions for a Mouth seems like a physical exercise for a mouth, more than that, it is an exercise to stretch the visitor’s mind. It works on several different levels: It reflects on the act of ‘stretching’ that expands the borders of the human body, but while doing so it is condensed into a single organ, namely the mouth … a single organ without a body, that in itself is a body. Straying from a prosthesis it preserves its authenticity (via its non-semantic gestures), its flexibility (with a curiosity of probing and transgressing its limits as a mouth), innate playfulness (not merely for the sake of being playful), and its genuine gracefulness. Last but not least, with all these attributes of a perfect human, this single mouth has the capacity to hypnotize its inquisitive viewer. Only after a couple of seconds, this piece from a deconstructed body calls for its visitor’s addictive presence.
We are alienated from our own organ with Howes’s piece, where in Jeanno Gaussi’s work Imaginary Friends we are befriending alienated objects. Gaussi works with found objects and converts them into friends. She pursues the residue of her imaginary companions she created when she was little, honoring her playful memories with them, and combines them with her ‘current’ imaginary friends. She continues this ‘custom’ of hers as she recombines found objects with her handicraft. With each act of intervention towards these objects she intrudes into the personal territory of each one them. Thus they loose their authenticity and become more related and familiar to us. Each ornament, be it the macramé, the use of beads or colorful strings, bring these objects more closer to us - the human beings- and invites us to become friends.
Kathrin Kösther’s piece envelopes both the familiar and the alien at the same time. Creating a rotation path in the gallery, Köster’s 7 meter long piece nests 6 figures that approximate empty cocoons. The semi-controlled movement of the ink of renaissance colors results in patterns resembling fabrics on paper. They lead the viewer in a semi-known familiarity: in the drawings, the patterns silently indicate the innate knowledge of the existence of six bodies - six bodies that have probably left their cocoons, and oscillating between polarities of knowing and unknowing. The visitor is encouraged to follow the physical structure of the work that almost wraps the visitors themselves. Using the venue’s limited espace Köstner’s work calls for a close encounter with the body of the spectator. This encounter drums up the tension of the visitor walking around the sturdy paper work, which is at the same time an extremely fragile object.
Through the comfort of these three artists, once again, we are walking in the variable shades of intimacy, extension and familiarity in relation to our bodies. Yet, the guidance of the artists leads us to a more colorful, delightful, and simultaneous alienation and familiarization process. With each work, we are left to redefine these notions as we perceive them through our own flesh.
Ece Pazarbasi
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»Gregarious Approximations«
Jeanno Gaussi, Emma Waltraud Howes, Kathrin Köster
Opening Thu 15 Mar 6-9 pm
15 Mar - 31 Mar 2018
Thu - Sat 2 - 6 pm
at frontviews
Tucholskystraße 37
10117 Berlin
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