Andy Parker
21 Mar - 02 May 2009
ANDY PARKER
March 21st – May 2nd, 2009
Opening on Friday, March 20th, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
With the young British artist Andy Parker (* 1978 Portsmouth) Sies + Höke presents a new member in the gallery program and gives him the first exhibition in Germany.
The artistic interest of Andrew Parker applies to the production, use and waste processes of every-day objects that account for the basic supply of human lives. Engaging the complexity of the terms value, function, production, use and decay, Parker converts objects of common usage into a more uncertain context by using photography, film, lithography, sculpture or temporary interventions.
One of the sources for his series Raft is the domestic equipment dumped in the public spaces of the city. Washing machines, microwaves, mattresses, tables and refrigerators – Parker reconstructs obsolete household effects using familiar materials such as tape, string, paint and tin-foil. By using common material and simple techniques he denies a technical perfection, instead rendering familiar, overlooked and used up objects as fragile and weirdly endangered. The basic elements of an average household are being piled up, tied down and cast into the sea as a sculptural construction that drifts and flounders along the coastline.
Photographically caught and provided with the title The History of England Andy Parker lets nostalgic myths of the ocean become history of everyday life and creates his very own chronicle of his country. Intensified in the metaphor of the raft, it stays uncertain whether or not the cargo boxed “home” will survive the transportation safely or will sink forever.
With the watercolour series Ulex europaeus the artist dedicates himself to the furze. He draws the furze branches with their thorns and blossoms true to detail and exposed on paper and fixes them with standard office-Clips on cardboard. The filigree drawings resemble botanical studies and are in their naturalism reminiscent of the photographic plant collection of Karl Blossfeldt. Parker turns our attention to a plant that because of its everyday appearance on roadsides and fields tends to be overlooked. The furze as an herbal invader (Neophyte) counts in many countries as a threat, since it spreads uncontrollably. Andy Parker portrays everyday phenomenon, where apparent harmlessness holds beauty as well as danger – in a botanical, aesthetic and symbolic sense.
Carla Orthen
March 21st – May 2nd, 2009
Opening on Friday, March 20th, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
With the young British artist Andy Parker (* 1978 Portsmouth) Sies + Höke presents a new member in the gallery program and gives him the first exhibition in Germany.
The artistic interest of Andrew Parker applies to the production, use and waste processes of every-day objects that account for the basic supply of human lives. Engaging the complexity of the terms value, function, production, use and decay, Parker converts objects of common usage into a more uncertain context by using photography, film, lithography, sculpture or temporary interventions.
One of the sources for his series Raft is the domestic equipment dumped in the public spaces of the city. Washing machines, microwaves, mattresses, tables and refrigerators – Parker reconstructs obsolete household effects using familiar materials such as tape, string, paint and tin-foil. By using common material and simple techniques he denies a technical perfection, instead rendering familiar, overlooked and used up objects as fragile and weirdly endangered. The basic elements of an average household are being piled up, tied down and cast into the sea as a sculptural construction that drifts and flounders along the coastline.
Photographically caught and provided with the title The History of England Andy Parker lets nostalgic myths of the ocean become history of everyday life and creates his very own chronicle of his country. Intensified in the metaphor of the raft, it stays uncertain whether or not the cargo boxed “home” will survive the transportation safely or will sink forever.
With the watercolour series Ulex europaeus the artist dedicates himself to the furze. He draws the furze branches with their thorns and blossoms true to detail and exposed on paper and fixes them with standard office-Clips on cardboard. The filigree drawings resemble botanical studies and are in their naturalism reminiscent of the photographic plant collection of Karl Blossfeldt. Parker turns our attention to a plant that because of its everyday appearance on roadsides and fields tends to be overlooked. The furze as an herbal invader (Neophyte) counts in many countries as a threat, since it spreads uncontrollably. Andy Parker portrays everyday phenomenon, where apparent harmlessness holds beauty as well as danger – in a botanical, aesthetic and symbolic sense.
Carla Orthen