SILKE WAGNER - facts & figures
07 Feb - 21 Mar 2015
In the exhibition "facts & figures" Galerie Wilma Tolksdorf presents recent works by Silke Wagner. In its multifaceted and medial diverse work, the artist deals with socio-political and socio-cultural issues which she translates through aesthetic forms in the sphere of visual art. She transforms political terms into the reality of the social and at the same time creates a new platform of publicity. In words of the philosopher Philipp Thomas Silke Wagner "exposes us to the overlooked, mainly to which we indeed somehow know, but its clear recognition is uncomfortable."
As a starting point for the exhibition, gathering ten new works, Silke Wagner uses numbers and statistics demonstrating the various aspects of a globalized and economized society. The first work that dealt with this topic was created in 2012 for the Biennale Bern. The twelve motifs of the work, "53 Fahnen für Bern", found themselves on flags in public spaces, as free available postcards and framed silkscreen prints. As a graphic translation of statistical analyzes in lines and geometric shapes they visualize the individual motifs of global issues, such as the distribution of private and public capital, the gold recovery by child labor and the decline in global biodiversity.
The new works by Silke Wagner pursue this critical approach while expanding its medial and formal vocabulary. The three spherical lamps of the work "Figure X", for example, illustrate by their respective size and diverse illuminating power of the bulbs the life-satisfaction level in Germany. While "Figure V" captures the distribution of wage and income in production and sale of jeans in the form of denim-wall-curtain haptically and graphically. Beyond the aesthetic pictorialization of socially relevant issues the works by Silke Wagner are "self-reflective, they formulate their symbolic-representative quality and prove themselves as artifacts." (Gabriele Sand, Sprengel Museum Hannover)
The most important exhibitions and projects by Silke Wagner include German Open, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, skulptur projekte münster 07, Playing the City, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Emscherkunst 2010, Biennale Bern 2012, Weather Report, Landesgalerie Linz and Tatort Paderborn among others. Her work has been shown in several solo exhibitions, including Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Kunstverein in Hamburg, Oldenburger Kunstverein and most recently at the Kunsthalle Göppingen.
As a starting point for the exhibition, gathering ten new works, Silke Wagner uses numbers and statistics demonstrating the various aspects of a globalized and economized society. The first work that dealt with this topic was created in 2012 for the Biennale Bern. The twelve motifs of the work, "53 Fahnen für Bern", found themselves on flags in public spaces, as free available postcards and framed silkscreen prints. As a graphic translation of statistical analyzes in lines and geometric shapes they visualize the individual motifs of global issues, such as the distribution of private and public capital, the gold recovery by child labor and the decline in global biodiversity.
The new works by Silke Wagner pursue this critical approach while expanding its medial and formal vocabulary. The three spherical lamps of the work "Figure X", for example, illustrate by their respective size and diverse illuminating power of the bulbs the life-satisfaction level in Germany. While "Figure V" captures the distribution of wage and income in production and sale of jeans in the form of denim-wall-curtain haptically and graphically. Beyond the aesthetic pictorialization of socially relevant issues the works by Silke Wagner are "self-reflective, they formulate their symbolic-representative quality and prove themselves as artifacts." (Gabriele Sand, Sprengel Museum Hannover)
The most important exhibitions and projects by Silke Wagner include German Open, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, skulptur projekte münster 07, Playing the City, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Emscherkunst 2010, Biennale Bern 2012, Weather Report, Landesgalerie Linz and Tatort Paderborn among others. Her work has been shown in several solo exhibitions, including Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Kunstverein in Hamburg, Oldenburger Kunstverein and most recently at the Kunsthalle Göppingen.