Barbara Thumm

Sabine Hornig

25 Feb - 15 Apr 2006

Sabine Hornig
Vorher Nachher
25. February - 15. April 2006

Opening reception Friday, 24. February, 7-9 pm

We are pleased to announce the forth solo exhibition of Sabine Hornig at the gallery. Sabine Hornig's sculptural piece "Vorher und Nachher" (Before and After), 2005, is an almost 15-metre-long wall that runs through the middle of the entire gallery, cutting the space in two.

At first glance, the layered elements that make up the wall appear to be stones, but in fact they are simply made of newspaper paper-mâché. The illusion of weight and solidity initially evoked by the long wall is thus opposed by its veritable lightness and fragility. There are also visible gaps between the stones, further emphasizing the fragility and architectural inconsistency of the construction as a whole. The title of the piece, on the other hand, alludes to the dimension of time, an aspect that is often neglected by architecture. Here, the temporal dimension of an event is addressed rather than the spatial dimension of "Davor und Dahinter" (before and behind). The simultaneous "Before and After" of an event - but what event? It could refer to the simultaneity of an encounter with a space at a particular time and the memory of that same space from another temporal perspective. Equally, the wall may be regarded as the embodiment of all profane and famous walls of all time. "Before and After" could also be a reference to the process during which the apparently real stone wall manifests itself as a fake stone wall - the transformation of a real wall into an artificial or 'art' wall: in other words, the process of representation itself.

As a whole, this work relates both to the simultaneity of the spatial and temporal levels, and to the simultaneity of reality and fiction.

Whereas in previous exhibitions Sabine Hornig employed photography as a means to explore the dual notions of representation and reality, space and perspective, here she has combined these elements in a single sculpture. Running counter to its size, solidity and abstraction is also the fact that this absurd, indeed impossible, fictitious architecture has in fact been made by hand.

Parallel to the presentation at Galerie Barbara Thumm, Sabine Hornig's work is currently on show at the Berlinische Galerie in an exhibition entitled "Raum mit großem Fenster" (Room with Large Window) (23.02.-28.05.06). A catalogue raisonné is also being published:

Sabine Hornig, Der zweite Raum/The Second Room
Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2006, 128 pages, 100 illustrations.
 

Tags: Sabine Hornig