Mittwoch, 17. Oktober 2018, um 20:30 Uhr
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Claudia Wieser | Chapter | Marianne Boesky Gallery | 2018
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“You
can step on those,” says Claudia Wieser, referring to a pair of large
reflective plates on the floor. “They’re just steel.” Her studio is
clearly also a workshop. Her casual way with the ceramic tiles and
metals scattered around the room is a sign that, before studying at the
Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, the Bavarian artist (b1973, Freilassing)
trained as a blacksmith.
But
with her classically modernist aesthetic – like the interiors of the
Bauhaus Meisterhäuser in Dessau, but in a more dusty colour pallet –
Wieser’s interest lies not just in materials, but in cultural histories
as well. Her meticulous drawings of geometric patterns, often with gold
leaf applied, have a ritual quality that is reminiscent of the esoteric
pioneer of abstraction Hilma af Klint, and, as such, engage the more
spiritual elements of modernism, prevalent especially in the Weimar
Republic. However, Wieser’s work departs from her early 20th-century
counterparts in its acute self-awareness – one that is realised, as she
mobilises her objects to become props in a theatre setting.
Mirrors
and large-scale collages play games with dimensionality and
perspective, making her work as alluring as it is disorienting. Outside
the art gallery, for instance at Munich airport or in corporate offices,
Wieser’s tasteful assemblages would almost pass for decoration, but, as
Jacques said in Shakespeare’s As You Like It: “All the world’s a
stage.” And on a stage, nothing is simply decor: this is what the artist
wants to remind us.
by KRISTIAN VISTRUP MADSEN
(excerpt from an interview in Studio International published 09/03/2018)
