Stephen Prina
He was but a bad translation
11 Jun - 24 Jul 2011
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The entire 1950s building by architect Wilhelm Riphahn, which houses the Kölnischer Kunstverein, will be engaged by the forthcoming Stephen Prina exhibition. Alongside an installation and a series of works that stem from Prina’s occupation with abstract painting the artist will show pieces from the work cycle The Way He Always Wanted It, among these a 35mm film and a video installation, centered around Ford House, Aurora, Illinois by the American architect, painter and composer Bruce Goff. Furthermore, a performance realized in cooperation with students of the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln and the Institut für Neue Musik will be shown on a daily basis in the theatre hall at the Kunstverein. For the performance a constant drone of a chromatic total will be heard and according to Prina’s specifications two musicians, using different instruments, will perform a duet based on a melody Goff programmed for player piano (pianola).
Translation processes between various artistic disciplines are key issues for the American artist who in his work continuously refers to other artists, architects, composers or filmmakers of modernity and pop culture. He uses methods of conceptual art in his contemplation of architecture and music or draws on musical and pop-cultural means and perspectives for painting. Herein he anticipates misunderstandings and disappointments which flawed and incomplete translation processes of cultural codes trigger in the audience. At the same time he firmly involves the spectator by his fascination with visual details and precise spatial settings. As suggested by the title He was but a bad translation. the artist includes himself in this game.
Due to his incessant development of conceptual and pop-cultural working methods Stephen Prina has since the 1980s become a pulse generating artist for the international art scene, and especially for Cologne, where for the first time he will be honoured with an institutional solo show at the Kölnischer Kunstverein. Stephen Prina was born 1954 in Galesburg, Illinois. He lives and works in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Los Angeles.
The entire 1950s building by architect Wilhelm Riphahn, which houses the Kölnischer Kunstverein, will be engaged by the forthcoming Stephen Prina exhibition. Alongside an installation and a series of works that stem from Prina’s occupation with abstract painting the artist will show pieces from the work cycle The Way He Always Wanted It, among these a 35mm film and a video installation, centered around Ford House, Aurora, Illinois by the American architect, painter and composer Bruce Goff. Furthermore, a performance realized in cooperation with students of the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln and the Institut für Neue Musik will be shown on a daily basis in the theatre hall at the Kunstverein. For the performance a constant drone of a chromatic total will be heard and according to Prina’s specifications two musicians, using different instruments, will perform a duet based on a melody Goff programmed for player piano (pianola).
Translation processes between various artistic disciplines are key issues for the American artist who in his work continuously refers to other artists, architects, composers or filmmakers of modernity and pop culture. He uses methods of conceptual art in his contemplation of architecture and music or draws on musical and pop-cultural means and perspectives for painting. Herein he anticipates misunderstandings and disappointments which flawed and incomplete translation processes of cultural codes trigger in the audience. At the same time he firmly involves the spectator by his fascination with visual details and precise spatial settings. As suggested by the title He was but a bad translation. the artist includes himself in this game.
Due to his incessant development of conceptual and pop-cultural working methods Stephen Prina has since the 1980s become a pulse generating artist for the international art scene, and especially for Cologne, where for the first time he will be honoured with an institutional solo show at the Kölnischer Kunstverein. Stephen Prina was born 1954 in Galesburg, Illinois. He lives and works in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Los Angeles.