Dirk Stewen
07 Sep - 05 Oct 2007
Dirk Stewen
pictures not lovers
Opening reception: 7 September 2007, 6 - 9 p.m.
Exhibition duration: 7 September – 5 October 2007
Dirk Stewen works with photographic paper, pages taken from antiquated art catalogues, posters, confetti of all sizes and colours, streamers, book covers, and sometimes with industrial prefab wood or metal. Blotting with Indian ink, folding, embroidering, layering one kind of paper on another, printing or copying onto it; the artist combines the emergent work into ensembles, collages or mural sculptures that cautiously extend into the surrounding space.
Central to his first exhibition with c/o - Atle Gerhardsen, "pictures not lovers", are five large works on photographic paper: rectangular fields composed of nine sheets of photographic paper, blackened with Indian ink, and then reworked with a sewing machine. Patterns made of coloured thread and confetti are blotted out with one or more coats of ink, and new patterns sewn overtop. The entirety is an extremely physical process; the photo paper suffers, bearing scratches and bends, the multiple layers of ink generate tension when moistening and drying on the paper, similar to the process of immersion in a developer and fixer bath.
The end result is works that could be taken for paintings at a distance; and yet at a closer look they reveal their rich structure. Whether the sheets of photo paper had been exposed in the first place, or bear images is unclear, and the colour of the dyed confetti also remains a mystery to us. For Dirk Stewen, in this creation of systems, order and structure are just as important as concealment, the partial obliteration and neutralisation of information. Only one of these works is titled ("Le Miroir (2007)"). In the gallery space, the confetti works will hold the central positions, arranged vertically.
The exhibition "pictures not lovers" will also include two photographs in the form of inkjet prints: the image of a clay sculpture, created by the artist especially for this shot is part of the work "Untitled (2007)". "Fotostudio II (2007)" is a photograph of a stool that Stewen uses for portrait photography.
There is a finely woven mesh of connections on the many layers of the artistic creative process. For "Untitled (2007)", the clay sculpture was captured on film, and then destroyed. Its image, depicted on a sheet of ancient paper, is included in an ensemble of photographic paper that has been treated with a brush and Indian ink.
The work "Die Umarmung", is a watercolour combined with a black-inked rod of wood and a ring of steel, suggesting a possible end point of the exhibition with c/o - Atle Gerhardsen. The colour circles show great affinity with the forms of the clay sculpture in "Untitled (2007)", and yet Dirk Stewen is aware of an even more special connection between watercolour and photography. In their process of development both owe their emergence to a controlled moment in time. Photography comprises identification with a motif, a brief grasping and releasing, a disembodied touch, appropriating of its essence. Watercolour demands the same precision in handling colour and the moisture of the paper. The artist decides how long the paint may spread on the carrier. To this end, he moves the paper similarly to how an exposed sheet of paper is moved in the developer bath. The minimal colour gradient and delicate forms of the watercolour have their own moment of exposure, slightly longer than required for a photograph, but only slightly.
Dirk Stewen was born in Dortmund in1972, and presently lives and works in Hamburg.
For further information or visuals please contact c/o – Atle Gerhardsen: Tel.: +49-30-69 51 83 41, Fax: +49-30-69 51 83 42, E-mail: office@atlegerhardsen.com or visit our website at http://www.atlegerhardsen.com.
pictures not lovers
Opening reception: 7 September 2007, 6 - 9 p.m.
Exhibition duration: 7 September – 5 October 2007
Dirk Stewen works with photographic paper, pages taken from antiquated art catalogues, posters, confetti of all sizes and colours, streamers, book covers, and sometimes with industrial prefab wood or metal. Blotting with Indian ink, folding, embroidering, layering one kind of paper on another, printing or copying onto it; the artist combines the emergent work into ensembles, collages or mural sculptures that cautiously extend into the surrounding space.
Central to his first exhibition with c/o - Atle Gerhardsen, "pictures not lovers", are five large works on photographic paper: rectangular fields composed of nine sheets of photographic paper, blackened with Indian ink, and then reworked with a sewing machine. Patterns made of coloured thread and confetti are blotted out with one or more coats of ink, and new patterns sewn overtop. The entirety is an extremely physical process; the photo paper suffers, bearing scratches and bends, the multiple layers of ink generate tension when moistening and drying on the paper, similar to the process of immersion in a developer and fixer bath.
The end result is works that could be taken for paintings at a distance; and yet at a closer look they reveal their rich structure. Whether the sheets of photo paper had been exposed in the first place, or bear images is unclear, and the colour of the dyed confetti also remains a mystery to us. For Dirk Stewen, in this creation of systems, order and structure are just as important as concealment, the partial obliteration and neutralisation of information. Only one of these works is titled ("Le Miroir (2007)"). In the gallery space, the confetti works will hold the central positions, arranged vertically.
The exhibition "pictures not lovers" will also include two photographs in the form of inkjet prints: the image of a clay sculpture, created by the artist especially for this shot is part of the work "Untitled (2007)". "Fotostudio II (2007)" is a photograph of a stool that Stewen uses for portrait photography.
There is a finely woven mesh of connections on the many layers of the artistic creative process. For "Untitled (2007)", the clay sculpture was captured on film, and then destroyed. Its image, depicted on a sheet of ancient paper, is included in an ensemble of photographic paper that has been treated with a brush and Indian ink.
The work "Die Umarmung", is a watercolour combined with a black-inked rod of wood and a ring of steel, suggesting a possible end point of the exhibition with c/o - Atle Gerhardsen. The colour circles show great affinity with the forms of the clay sculpture in "Untitled (2007)", and yet Dirk Stewen is aware of an even more special connection between watercolour and photography. In their process of development both owe their emergence to a controlled moment in time. Photography comprises identification with a motif, a brief grasping and releasing, a disembodied touch, appropriating of its essence. Watercolour demands the same precision in handling colour and the moisture of the paper. The artist decides how long the paint may spread on the carrier. To this end, he moves the paper similarly to how an exposed sheet of paper is moved in the developer bath. The minimal colour gradient and delicate forms of the watercolour have their own moment of exposure, slightly longer than required for a photograph, but only slightly.
Dirk Stewen was born in Dortmund in1972, and presently lives and works in Hamburg.
For further information or visuals please contact c/o – Atle Gerhardsen: Tel.: +49-30-69 51 83 41, Fax: +49-30-69 51 83 42, E-mail: office@atlegerhardsen.com or visit our website at http://www.atlegerhardsen.com.