THE FIFITH ELEMENT
Opening: November 15, 2013Galerie Tanja Wagner, Berlin
In her current works Trojnarski refers to physical discoveries of the 18th and 19th century that form the
basis for industrial development and modern progress. In particular the artist deals with electro-magnetic
experiments and phenomenons, especially the experiments of the scientist Nicola Tesla.
The correspondent painting Tesla relates to the laboratory of the scientist which was located in the
mountain desert of Colorado Springs. Around the largest Tesla-coil a simple wooden house was
constructed. Here Tesla undertook his experiments with enormous lightning discharge. In the painting itself
the artist unloads with broad brush marks intensive colors – orange and purple shades are strongly
contrasting. In between the lucent fragments, pieces of pale areas are connected collage-like with each
other.
In Sympathie I (oil on grey board) pieces of rocks are facing each other with a copper plate placed between
them. Similar to images of a sliced globe with its multiple layers Sympathie II shows four stones in a row.
Symbolizing the correlation between all entities and substances the artist adverts to elemental relations.
Trojnarski's installation Wogender Bernstein is also an entirely new work. It consists of three wooden balls
each hanging on a copper wire in different heights from the ceiling. Thick screws around which the wire is
wrapped, stick out of wooden bodies. Reclined on the floor, three copper plates form the respective antipole
while at the same time transferring the three-dimensional spherical shape into a two-dimensional surface.
Scientific experiments with electricity are often conducted with balls or semicircular objects. The interspace
between the two poles is of special relevance as it doesn't just disclose the void in between but reveals the
hidden forces. Hence the work can be conceived artistically as well as scientifically – the boundaries
between the two spheres of activity are becoming indistinct.
In this sense the exhibition title Das Fünfte Element (The Fifth Element) features a double meaning: On the
one hand the title refers to electricity or the wide field of electro magnetism, on the other the fifth element
relates to love – as in the corresponding film by Luc Besson. For Trojnarski the love of artists and scientists
for their individual work is a subject of special interest. In the passion and sensitivity, the power of
observation as well as the unconditional creative urge and thirst for knowledge she recognizes strong
parallels. For her the creative processes in the arts and sciences are quite similar even though her results
stay in principle different.
Generally Angelika J. Trojnarski deals in her work with topics that explore the tension between progress
and destruction. The dualism created by mankind marks the field of research of the artist who reveals the
traces of a self-inflicted depredation. Her hybrid realities are deserted: The fragility of human beings in
regards of constant threats in a hyper technical world are plainly apparent in Trojnarski’s work.