Johannes Wohnseifer
16 Apr - 07 Jun 2008
© Johannes Wohnseifer
Part of: The Hole World 2008
Photographs, printed papers, newspaper cuttings
each 50 x 70 cm
4 collages
Part of: The Hole World 2008
Photographs, printed papers, newspaper cuttings
each 50 x 70 cm
4 collages
JOHANNES WOHNSEIFER
April 16 – May 24, 2008
Water, light and earth are the main elements of Johannes Wohnseifer’s current exhibition “The Hole World“ at Gallery Gisela Capitain Capitain. The title describes the impression the visitor gains immediately upon entering the gallery: while the windows are obstructed with silver foil - cutting off the outside – a self-sustained, separate world spreads out inside the gallery space. In that ‘Hole’ the entire planet earth is reflected with all its facets in the metallic squares of the window panes: As three quarter of the earth’s surface is covered by water, it is the dominating element of the exhibition; the five continents are represented as combinations of tables and lamps.
Contrasting with the monotony of the dark, almost black seascape, colourful are images of freight containers in their original scale. But these are not aimlessly floating in an endless ocean, they carry an additional meaning: While interconnecting the continents they provide also for the exchange of goods. Even though all this seems to be one cosmos, each of the five continents has its own individual moon.
Surreal and fictional elements meet the familiar, sculpture is also painting and combined with works on paper, editions encounter customized objects, already existing items are transformed into something new. “The tables are self-made as well as bought or found objects, the same is valid for the lamps, which represent the moon. Each of these combinations could be understood as a landscape which moves within a larger and superordinate model of the world.”(JW) The elements in their entirety are contrasting and affiliating with each other in the installation, like in former exhibitions of Johannes Wohnseifer. Each element is part of a whole – the complex system ‘world’. This association is articulated through the wordplay in the title: “The Hole World” signifies on the one hand our world as a protective hole, and on the other hand refers phonetically to the whole world – implying the globalisation of our planet.
While the influences of our environment, of pop culture and politics upon human beings - who present the nodal point in all these currents – transmit themselves in the oeuvre of Johannes Wohnseifer usually in a very direct and sometimes autobiographical way, here the individual is only implied through his surroundings. “The Hole World” is therefore reflecting our ‘Zeitgeist’ and questions it at the same time: Is a globalisation possible? Or is everybody creating his own little world?
April 16 – May 24, 2008
Water, light and earth are the main elements of Johannes Wohnseifer’s current exhibition “The Hole World“ at Gallery Gisela Capitain Capitain. The title describes the impression the visitor gains immediately upon entering the gallery: while the windows are obstructed with silver foil - cutting off the outside – a self-sustained, separate world spreads out inside the gallery space. In that ‘Hole’ the entire planet earth is reflected with all its facets in the metallic squares of the window panes: As three quarter of the earth’s surface is covered by water, it is the dominating element of the exhibition; the five continents are represented as combinations of tables and lamps.
Contrasting with the monotony of the dark, almost black seascape, colourful are images of freight containers in their original scale. But these are not aimlessly floating in an endless ocean, they carry an additional meaning: While interconnecting the continents they provide also for the exchange of goods. Even though all this seems to be one cosmos, each of the five continents has its own individual moon.
Surreal and fictional elements meet the familiar, sculpture is also painting and combined with works on paper, editions encounter customized objects, already existing items are transformed into something new. “The tables are self-made as well as bought or found objects, the same is valid for the lamps, which represent the moon. Each of these combinations could be understood as a landscape which moves within a larger and superordinate model of the world.”(JW) The elements in their entirety are contrasting and affiliating with each other in the installation, like in former exhibitions of Johannes Wohnseifer. Each element is part of a whole – the complex system ‘world’. This association is articulated through the wordplay in the title: “The Hole World” signifies on the one hand our world as a protective hole, and on the other hand refers phonetically to the whole world – implying the globalisation of our planet.
While the influences of our environment, of pop culture and politics upon human beings - who present the nodal point in all these currents – transmit themselves in the oeuvre of Johannes Wohnseifer usually in a very direct and sometimes autobiographical way, here the individual is only implied through his surroundings. “The Hole World” is therefore reflecting our ‘Zeitgeist’ and questions it at the same time: Is a globalisation possible? Or is everybody creating his own little world?