Elizabeth Jaeger
Brine
26 Apr - 08 Jun 2019
KLEMM’S is pleased to present Elizabeth Jaeger’s first solo exhibition Brine at the gallery on the
occasion of the Berlin Gallery Weekend 2019. The artist has joined the gallery program starting
this year.
Empty, rotting, hollow... Jaeger’s sculpture series presented in an installation in the gallery space,
explores the emotive, almost mortal qualities of man-made objects. Her fragile, vase-like glass fish
dangle above the floor on dark cold, steel constructions. Their sharp, copper teeth bared, the fish
ostensibly grimace in the face of advanced rigidity – one last, desperate gasp for air? The
ambiance is conditioned by the show’s title: Brine, a preserving, thermal fluid, but also a
hazardous byproduct of industrial processes. The floor is littered with gravel, reminiscent of an
abandoned rocky shore, and serves as a site, in an almost archeological sense, hiding broken
ceramic molds—fragmented artefacts from the complex production process, remnants of the
sculptures’ material genesis.
With a growing sense of unease and uncanniness embedded in the sculptural arrangement, the
gallery as a whole becomes a quiet refuge of forsaken paraphernalia. Discarded and disjunct, the
brittle glass bodies and their former molds can be taken as metaphors for a sense of fatigue and
escapism—hollow remains of a society in silent, unrelenting paralysis.
Elizabeth Jaeger manipulates seemingly familiar relationship between the viewers and their
own physicality, their surrounding and their consciousness. The artist discloses a complex
story of phenomenological concern, behind the construction of meaning of organic, and
synthetic material. Her objects unfold as existentialist thought experiments that question
material realities, as embodiments of a critical, political mindset.
Elizabeth Jaeger (born 1988) studied at Lewis and Clark College, Portland, OR and at
the École Nationale Supérieur des Arts, Nancy, France. Recent solo and two-person
exhibitions were exhibited at Jack Hanley Gallery; at And Now in Dallas, TX and at Eli
Ping, New York. The artist has participated in numerous group exhibitions in institutions
such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, Moma PS1 and at Sculpture Center, New
York.
occasion of the Berlin Gallery Weekend 2019. The artist has joined the gallery program starting
this year.
Empty, rotting, hollow... Jaeger’s sculpture series presented in an installation in the gallery space,
explores the emotive, almost mortal qualities of man-made objects. Her fragile, vase-like glass fish
dangle above the floor on dark cold, steel constructions. Their sharp, copper teeth bared, the fish
ostensibly grimace in the face of advanced rigidity – one last, desperate gasp for air? The
ambiance is conditioned by the show’s title: Brine, a preserving, thermal fluid, but also a
hazardous byproduct of industrial processes. The floor is littered with gravel, reminiscent of an
abandoned rocky shore, and serves as a site, in an almost archeological sense, hiding broken
ceramic molds—fragmented artefacts from the complex production process, remnants of the
sculptures’ material genesis.
With a growing sense of unease and uncanniness embedded in the sculptural arrangement, the
gallery as a whole becomes a quiet refuge of forsaken paraphernalia. Discarded and disjunct, the
brittle glass bodies and their former molds can be taken as metaphors for a sense of fatigue and
escapism—hollow remains of a society in silent, unrelenting paralysis.
Elizabeth Jaeger manipulates seemingly familiar relationship between the viewers and their
own physicality, their surrounding and their consciousness. The artist discloses a complex
story of phenomenological concern, behind the construction of meaning of organic, and
synthetic material. Her objects unfold as existentialist thought experiments that question
material realities, as embodiments of a critical, political mindset.
Elizabeth Jaeger (born 1988) studied at Lewis and Clark College, Portland, OR and at
the École Nationale Supérieur des Arts, Nancy, France. Recent solo and two-person
exhibitions were exhibited at Jack Hanley Gallery; at And Now in Dallas, TX and at Eli
Ping, New York. The artist has participated in numerous group exhibitions in institutions
such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, Moma PS1 and at Sculpture Center, New
York.