Angelika Krinzinger
16 Jun - 30 Jul 2009
ANGELIKA KRINZINGER
"The skin of things"
From June 16th to July 30th 2009
Angelika Krinzinger has her first exhibition in Spain at Galería Distrito 4 with her photography series Woodnotes. In Angelika Krinzinger’s work as a whole, the topics of nature and body play a decisive and central role – and not just from an anthropomorphic viewpoint. Using photography as a medium, this artist has created different series of works all sharing a common motif: either human skin (masculine and feminine) with coded details and fragments, or the skin of serpents or flowers she has put to dry in an old herbarium to then radiography them, bringing them to new life – or, like in the latest series, the “skin” of trees.
In contrast with Giuseppe Penone, the Italian povera artist who reaches for the internal core of the tree to expose its growth processes, Krinzinger’s Woodnotes explores the bark’s surface: she concentrates on fragments, not seeking information about the age of the tree in question, but about its destiny within the larger context of the wood.
This new series can be regarded as a work about painting, since its symbols remind us of anonymous graffiti – but they are also photographs, used so as to capture this vision of nature. Here photography has in part a codifying character, for the artist discloses her motifs and renders them open to interpretation. On the other hand, she is interested in the aesthetic appearance pervading her work. This tension is distinctly present in all of Angelika Krinzinger’s works.
Questioning the functionality of these signs is expressed in her brushstrokes – their semantic and aesthetical dimensions merge in these photographs. The bark’s structure, a product of the tree’s slow growth, is covered with a quick brushstroke: this conveys the impression of an abstract painter who had tried to work with a difficult material. Insofar the artist enlightens involved viewers, each colour signals a completely different meaning for foresters or forestry experts, the woodland’s landlords or the owners of the timber... They hint at the tree either as a sick tree, a potential timber supplier, or a visual marker in the forest.
Krinzinger is interested in the interaction of the different messages happening both in the aesthetic dimension of image and in the dimension of signs and language. In doing this, her great merit is not asking from the medium anything that this cannot give.
While this artist’s photographs present conceptual sides, she uses the concept of photography in order to express her purpose – this way, she provides them with congruence. Photography is a medium in which light and time are essential. Time has stopped in the herbarium, a time that comes down to us. In images of the body like those of trees, the passage of time and change are no negligible factors. Each of Krinzinger’s photographs poses questions for the viewer, disturbs and challenges us to look at it again. They tackle origin-related issues (in the images of genitals, body parts...) and nature issues (in still lifes or images of natural life).
"The skin of things"
From June 16th to July 30th 2009
Angelika Krinzinger has her first exhibition in Spain at Galería Distrito 4 with her photography series Woodnotes. In Angelika Krinzinger’s work as a whole, the topics of nature and body play a decisive and central role – and not just from an anthropomorphic viewpoint. Using photography as a medium, this artist has created different series of works all sharing a common motif: either human skin (masculine and feminine) with coded details and fragments, or the skin of serpents or flowers she has put to dry in an old herbarium to then radiography them, bringing them to new life – or, like in the latest series, the “skin” of trees.
In contrast with Giuseppe Penone, the Italian povera artist who reaches for the internal core of the tree to expose its growth processes, Krinzinger’s Woodnotes explores the bark’s surface: she concentrates on fragments, not seeking information about the age of the tree in question, but about its destiny within the larger context of the wood.
This new series can be regarded as a work about painting, since its symbols remind us of anonymous graffiti – but they are also photographs, used so as to capture this vision of nature. Here photography has in part a codifying character, for the artist discloses her motifs and renders them open to interpretation. On the other hand, she is interested in the aesthetic appearance pervading her work. This tension is distinctly present in all of Angelika Krinzinger’s works.
Questioning the functionality of these signs is expressed in her brushstrokes – their semantic and aesthetical dimensions merge in these photographs. The bark’s structure, a product of the tree’s slow growth, is covered with a quick brushstroke: this conveys the impression of an abstract painter who had tried to work with a difficult material. Insofar the artist enlightens involved viewers, each colour signals a completely different meaning for foresters or forestry experts, the woodland’s landlords or the owners of the timber... They hint at the tree either as a sick tree, a potential timber supplier, or a visual marker in the forest.
Krinzinger is interested in the interaction of the different messages happening both in the aesthetic dimension of image and in the dimension of signs and language. In doing this, her great merit is not asking from the medium anything that this cannot give.
While this artist’s photographs present conceptual sides, she uses the concept of photography in order to express her purpose – this way, she provides them with congruence. Photography is a medium in which light and time are essential. Time has stopped in the herbarium, a time that comes down to us. In images of the body like those of trees, the passage of time and change are no negligible factors. Each of Krinzinger’s photographs poses questions for the viewer, disturbs and challenges us to look at it again. They tackle origin-related issues (in the images of genitals, body parts...) and nature issues (in still lifes or images of natural life).