Helen Feifel
16 Sep - 12 Nov 2011
HELEN FEIFEL
16 September - 12 November, 2011
Helen Feifel’s objects and drawings create fine fissures within the direct perception of reality, they fathom the borders between presentation and representation. She places found, in part already existing materials and forms into new contexts. The features of the objects are questioned, or rather, newly defined. In an earlier presentation, for example, the costume of a harlequin on the wall, which at first glence seemed to have been hung there in passing, turns out to be an object-like picture when taking a closer look: the diamond-shaped pattern is painted, and depending on one’s viewing position, the “costume” appears two-dimensional, while the back side is monochrome white. What is comprehensible becomes inexplicable, what is functional becomes unusable, like with her glass and vase objects that consist of vases of various styles that she shattered beforehand. As “re-collaged” objects, they turn into vivid masks of different social notions of taste and at the same time seem to be elements of archaic rituals and gestures. This process-oriented change or transformation is visualized in the gouaches by the joining together of tiny, finely drawn and coloured components that form protagonists, the appearance of which can be described as something between clothing, architecture and nature.
The hand-coloured photograph in the current exhibition marks a special form of inversion and reversal of art-genrespecific features. The hand colouring of photographs is an almost forgotten technique. At the end of the 19th century, particularly in Japan, the colouring of photographs was an art form of its own, which became obsolete, however, with the invention of colour photography. The technique is very elaborate and time-consuming; special transparent dyes are used for this purpose which only very few companies still manufacture.
In this regard, photography turns into painting. At the same time, the picture motif of the photograph is an object produced by Helen Feifel that appears to unite the features of her vase objects and gouaches to thus become the enigmatic main figure.
Helen Feifel (*1983) lives and works in Karlsruhe. Between 2005 and 2011 she has studied at the academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe. She has participated at group exhibitions like “Regionale” at Kunsthalle Basel, Städtischen Galerie Karlsruhe and Kunsthaus Baselland.
16 September - 12 November, 2011
Helen Feifel’s objects and drawings create fine fissures within the direct perception of reality, they fathom the borders between presentation and representation. She places found, in part already existing materials and forms into new contexts. The features of the objects are questioned, or rather, newly defined. In an earlier presentation, for example, the costume of a harlequin on the wall, which at first glence seemed to have been hung there in passing, turns out to be an object-like picture when taking a closer look: the diamond-shaped pattern is painted, and depending on one’s viewing position, the “costume” appears two-dimensional, while the back side is monochrome white. What is comprehensible becomes inexplicable, what is functional becomes unusable, like with her glass and vase objects that consist of vases of various styles that she shattered beforehand. As “re-collaged” objects, they turn into vivid masks of different social notions of taste and at the same time seem to be elements of archaic rituals and gestures. This process-oriented change or transformation is visualized in the gouaches by the joining together of tiny, finely drawn and coloured components that form protagonists, the appearance of which can be described as something between clothing, architecture and nature.
The hand-coloured photograph in the current exhibition marks a special form of inversion and reversal of art-genrespecific features. The hand colouring of photographs is an almost forgotten technique. At the end of the 19th century, particularly in Japan, the colouring of photographs was an art form of its own, which became obsolete, however, with the invention of colour photography. The technique is very elaborate and time-consuming; special transparent dyes are used for this purpose which only very few companies still manufacture.
In this regard, photography turns into painting. At the same time, the picture motif of the photograph is an object produced by Helen Feifel that appears to unite the features of her vase objects and gouaches to thus become the enigmatic main figure.
Helen Feifel (*1983) lives and works in Karlsruhe. Between 2005 and 2011 she has studied at the academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe. She has participated at group exhibitions like “Regionale” at Kunsthalle Basel, Städtischen Galerie Karlsruhe and Kunsthaus Baselland.