Nina Canell
29 Apr - 08 Jul 2011
NINA CANELL
Heart of the Matter
29 April - 8 July, 2011
Galerie Barbara Wien Wilma Lukatsch presents the second solo exhibition of sculptures by Nina Canell (*1979). Flour, gravel and water comprise the majority of the work, which began at a construction site in Istanbul. Observing and collecting the daily leftovers from the ongoing construction process (various haphazard building materials along with piles of half-eaten bread loafs which were left behind in huddled masses on the workers’ provisional lunch table), these materials provided the basis for a grouping of material foldings and energy conversions on the gallery floor. Concreteness — seen as a medium which grows together — functions here as a series of comings and goings rather than something solid in its own right. The weightless character of stale bread intermingles with heavy cement lumps which fold back into cumbersomely cast bread imitations in stone.
Food turning into labour turning into built structure is the basic conversion here, but as in most of Canell’s work there is an embedded implication that something more durational registers in each transformation - something which is brought into focus by the work Another Ode to Outer Ends which slowly weaves fragments of solidity in an ongoing process throughout the duration of the exhibition. Departing as sound, ultrasonic vibrations turn water into vapour, while the migrating moisture escapes over the rim of a basin and settles in surrounding piles and mounds of loose cement, resulting in a contingent process of petrification and dissolution - of taking shape and losing form.
If objects are apparitions of vibrations it seems reasonable to note that in turn, when there is absolutely no matter to make contact with, vibrations cannot travel. Another work takes its physical and metaphorical cue from this fact, whereby the silent ringing of a bell can be observed in vacuum. Here the imperfections of the glass jar slowly invite the surrounding air to seep back into the hollow, allowing the sound to gradually re-appear with the increasing volume of air. Not unlike Canell’s work with other gases (such as krypton and neon) air becomes a relational sculptural element which moves in and out of tangibility — something that can be altered, carved into or even congeal into a standing block of matter.
The exhibition Heart of the Matter can be seen as a parallel position to Matter of the Heart (Konrad Fischer Galerie, Berlin).
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As an insert to the exhibition of Nina Canell we will show several works by Robin Watkins (*1980) in the space above the bookshop – including the edition The Luminiferous Aether (2009), published by Wiens Verlag Berlin.
A sound screening connected to the work The Luminiferous Aether (2009) will take place on the 21st of May at 9pm at Galerie Wien Lukatsch in which listeners will collectively experience the work through individual radio headphones and receivers, grouped in front of a central transmitter.
Heart of the Matter
29 April - 8 July, 2011
Galerie Barbara Wien Wilma Lukatsch presents the second solo exhibition of sculptures by Nina Canell (*1979). Flour, gravel and water comprise the majority of the work, which began at a construction site in Istanbul. Observing and collecting the daily leftovers from the ongoing construction process (various haphazard building materials along with piles of half-eaten bread loafs which were left behind in huddled masses on the workers’ provisional lunch table), these materials provided the basis for a grouping of material foldings and energy conversions on the gallery floor. Concreteness — seen as a medium which grows together — functions here as a series of comings and goings rather than something solid in its own right. The weightless character of stale bread intermingles with heavy cement lumps which fold back into cumbersomely cast bread imitations in stone.
Food turning into labour turning into built structure is the basic conversion here, but as in most of Canell’s work there is an embedded implication that something more durational registers in each transformation - something which is brought into focus by the work Another Ode to Outer Ends which slowly weaves fragments of solidity in an ongoing process throughout the duration of the exhibition. Departing as sound, ultrasonic vibrations turn water into vapour, while the migrating moisture escapes over the rim of a basin and settles in surrounding piles and mounds of loose cement, resulting in a contingent process of petrification and dissolution - of taking shape and losing form.
If objects are apparitions of vibrations it seems reasonable to note that in turn, when there is absolutely no matter to make contact with, vibrations cannot travel. Another work takes its physical and metaphorical cue from this fact, whereby the silent ringing of a bell can be observed in vacuum. Here the imperfections of the glass jar slowly invite the surrounding air to seep back into the hollow, allowing the sound to gradually re-appear with the increasing volume of air. Not unlike Canell’s work with other gases (such as krypton and neon) air becomes a relational sculptural element which moves in and out of tangibility — something that can be altered, carved into or even congeal into a standing block of matter.
The exhibition Heart of the Matter can be seen as a parallel position to Matter of the Heart (Konrad Fischer Galerie, Berlin).
-------------------------
As an insert to the exhibition of Nina Canell we will show several works by Robin Watkins (*1980) in the space above the bookshop – including the edition The Luminiferous Aether (2009), published by Wiens Verlag Berlin.
A sound screening connected to the work The Luminiferous Aether (2009) will take place on the 21st of May at 9pm at Galerie Wien Lukatsch in which listeners will collectively experience the work through individual radio headphones and receivers, grouped in front of a central transmitter.