Katinka Bock
12 Sep - 08 Nov 2014
KATINKA BOCK
Populonia
12 September – 8 November 2014
For her third solo show at Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Katinka Bock proposes an experimental project specifically created for the gallery space, entitled Populonia.
Katinka Bock is interested in containers, objects with an opening, that can receive and give. These she largely names receptacles.
Particularly interested in these forms, Katinka Bock’s first intervention in the gallery space involved removing any unnecessary partitions and opening one wall to make it possible to discover the space behind and, in this way, creating a new way for the eye to circulate within the space. Katinka Bock placed large plates of glass having the same dimensions as those of the gallery windows: Der zweite Raum (glass, 220 x 125 x 22 cm) invites, by its transparency, to see beyond the wall. The landscape outside reflects in it, and this reflection changes according to where one is located in the gallery. It is a way of bringing the outside landscape inside.
Circulation is also that which flows, as water flows, as does the water that comes from the gallery’s main faucet. Moscow is a work that is activated when someone turns on the water. The flow of this water was divided into three. One remains for the use of the gallery. The two others circulate in transparent hoses, one of which contains tap water and the other, with water supplemented with salt. Each flows through the gallery and into the street. Circulation animates the space and, in a more abstract way, in the different places Katinka convokes. With the series Recording paper, each work (made of a piece of paper) was placed for one day and one night on a window: Amsterdam, Paris, New York, Pantelleria... Like the window, the piece of paper was simultaneously in contact with both the inside and the outside. Each work in this series preserves the imprint and the memory of the place where it was produced.
The human scale is present in numerous works even if it is not immediately visible. Horizontal Alphabet (ceramics, glass, cloth), the exhibition’s central work is composed of many elements of ceramics, each having the dimension of a part of the human body: hand, foot, head, bust, etc. The artist added plates of glass to produce a new way of seeing, the inside and outside, in the reflections of the space around.
On the same blue cloth, Zucker und Salz, einfach borrows its formal vocabulary (metal, ceramics, cloth) from a piece by Katinka Bock that has the same name. The title underscores how the artist created a different work while using similar materials, just as sugar and salt are of identical appearance yet taste differently. Radio (leather ball, ceramics, bronze) is composed of a ball placed on a base in bronze and two ceramics. The ball was used by Katinka Bock to make other works. Likewise, certain objects that are used by the artist to produce works are then integrated into works themselves. This movement from the tool to the œuvre can be observed within other pieces in the space such as the series of three works in bronze, Farben diese Meeres: Tuch, Hut, Schale. At times, it is a piece of pottery that has been used to make an imprint on clay, or a piece of cloth used to give form to the ceramics, or a ball that provided the round shape.
Grund und Boden (zweifach) consists of the layering of two ceramics on top of a blue, rice-filled cushion placed on the floor. The latter gives stability to the ensemble, while the blue cushion that embraces the top of the sculpture evokes a seat.
Amerika (ceramics, steel, cloth) is composed of two ceramics, each set upon a metal tripod, which, through their dimensions, again evoke a human presence. The title of the work refers to the American continent, divided into North and South.
Katinka Bock also created an opening in the wall, a window that allows one to see a space that is usually closed to the public. The artist adds a new space to transform the viewer’s perception of the space.
Aussischt zu zweit is a mirror hung in such a way that it reflects the white wall of the space. When one is standing behind it, the work invites the viewer to stop and look into the mirror and then to stand to the side to see what the mirror is reflecting in front of it.
One meter space (cotton string) consists of a series of small knots tied, at more or less regular intervals along a string by different people, who, at the artist’s request, created a knot at one meter from the existing knot. A subjective and random measurement, this piece by Katinka evokes a chain that ties different individuals to the same object, which, as with the mirror work, evokes the notion of the human scale.
Populonia
12 September – 8 November 2014
For her third solo show at Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Katinka Bock proposes an experimental project specifically created for the gallery space, entitled Populonia.
Katinka Bock is interested in containers, objects with an opening, that can receive and give. These she largely names receptacles.
Particularly interested in these forms, Katinka Bock’s first intervention in the gallery space involved removing any unnecessary partitions and opening one wall to make it possible to discover the space behind and, in this way, creating a new way for the eye to circulate within the space. Katinka Bock placed large plates of glass having the same dimensions as those of the gallery windows: Der zweite Raum (glass, 220 x 125 x 22 cm) invites, by its transparency, to see beyond the wall. The landscape outside reflects in it, and this reflection changes according to where one is located in the gallery. It is a way of bringing the outside landscape inside.
Circulation is also that which flows, as water flows, as does the water that comes from the gallery’s main faucet. Moscow is a work that is activated when someone turns on the water. The flow of this water was divided into three. One remains for the use of the gallery. The two others circulate in transparent hoses, one of which contains tap water and the other, with water supplemented with salt. Each flows through the gallery and into the street. Circulation animates the space and, in a more abstract way, in the different places Katinka convokes. With the series Recording paper, each work (made of a piece of paper) was placed for one day and one night on a window: Amsterdam, Paris, New York, Pantelleria... Like the window, the piece of paper was simultaneously in contact with both the inside and the outside. Each work in this series preserves the imprint and the memory of the place where it was produced.
The human scale is present in numerous works even if it is not immediately visible. Horizontal Alphabet (ceramics, glass, cloth), the exhibition’s central work is composed of many elements of ceramics, each having the dimension of a part of the human body: hand, foot, head, bust, etc. The artist added plates of glass to produce a new way of seeing, the inside and outside, in the reflections of the space around.
On the same blue cloth, Zucker und Salz, einfach borrows its formal vocabulary (metal, ceramics, cloth) from a piece by Katinka Bock that has the same name. The title underscores how the artist created a different work while using similar materials, just as sugar and salt are of identical appearance yet taste differently. Radio (leather ball, ceramics, bronze) is composed of a ball placed on a base in bronze and two ceramics. The ball was used by Katinka Bock to make other works. Likewise, certain objects that are used by the artist to produce works are then integrated into works themselves. This movement from the tool to the œuvre can be observed within other pieces in the space such as the series of three works in bronze, Farben diese Meeres: Tuch, Hut, Schale. At times, it is a piece of pottery that has been used to make an imprint on clay, or a piece of cloth used to give form to the ceramics, or a ball that provided the round shape.
Grund und Boden (zweifach) consists of the layering of two ceramics on top of a blue, rice-filled cushion placed on the floor. The latter gives stability to the ensemble, while the blue cushion that embraces the top of the sculpture evokes a seat.
Amerika (ceramics, steel, cloth) is composed of two ceramics, each set upon a metal tripod, which, through their dimensions, again evoke a human presence. The title of the work refers to the American continent, divided into North and South.
Katinka Bock also created an opening in the wall, a window that allows one to see a space that is usually closed to the public. The artist adds a new space to transform the viewer’s perception of the space.
Aussischt zu zweit is a mirror hung in such a way that it reflects the white wall of the space. When one is standing behind it, the work invites the viewer to stop and look into the mirror and then to stand to the side to see what the mirror is reflecting in front of it.
One meter space (cotton string) consists of a series of small knots tied, at more or less regular intervals along a string by different people, who, at the artist’s request, created a knot at one meter from the existing knot. A subjective and random measurement, this piece by Katinka evokes a chain that ties different individuals to the same object, which, as with the mirror work, evokes the notion of the human scale.