Acknowledgement: curated by Raimar Stange... 20.06.2009 – 01.08.2009
...the colleagues, companions and friends of Jürgen Drescher who are taking part in this exhibition. For Jürgen Drescher is probably someone who can justifiably be described as an ”artistÕs artist“, i.e. an artist who has for a number of years enjoyed the respect of his colleagues in the art world, an “inside tip“, as it were. And he is an artist who in 1981 created a piece of German art history by exhibiting a functioning bar installation at the student show at the Dusseldorf Kunstakademie and proclaiming it a work of art. The “Dank an” (“Acknowledgment to”) exhibition showcases artists from three generations who enter into a dialogue with this “artistÕs artist.” At this exhibition they are showing self-selected works that are influenced by DrescherÕs artistic output. These connections range widely, from a friendly, almost intimate gesture (Asta Gröting, Bernd Krauß) to various formal references. Allusion is made to the sculptural works of Jürgen Drescher (Katharina Fritsch, Miroslaw Balka, Michael Sailstorfer), to his text-based creations (Candice Breitz, Christine Würmell) and to his film products (Silva Agostini, Anna Witt). However, the formal references to the art of Jürgen Drescher always prove neither accidental nor clearly intentional. Rather these references stem from a parallel questioning of and similar attitudes to art and the world. And fathoming out precisely these exciting aesthetic moments is the primary concern of “Dank an” (“Acknowledgment to”).Raimar Stange, Berlin, 2009
party! 27.09.07 - 20.12.07
Being human is bad for the environment.Two gorillas, a llama, a banister broken into pieces, a bench from a suburban line station, a cistern, the concentrated beam of a spotlight, flattened packing cases and a teardrop – these are the exhibits in Jürgen Drescher`s current display at Galerie Isabella Czarnowska, gathered together under the title “party”.
Making casts of objects has become an important part of Jürgen Drescher`s artistic practice. His chosen items are often everyday objects such as wooden banisters or packing cases. By reproducing them he expresses his appreciation of these ostensibly insignificant objects, the material or sculptural qualities of which often only become visible as a result of this transfer process. On many of the newel posts – which in their fragmented form make allusion to architecture or to an interior that has evidently been subject to brutal destruction – one can still see the runners through which the aluminium was poured into the negative form of the original object.
In her contribution to Jürgen Drescher`s recently published catalogue raisonné, Barbara Buchmaier writes: “Drescher allows the traces of rapid work on the sculptures to remain, consciously confronting the observer with the particular object`s production process. His sculptures consequently take on an unfinished character, and at first glance they seem `imperfect.`In this respect it is also more difficult to assess and evaluate them.
`Does failure mean that questions are kept open?´ the artist asks, an idea which unexpectedly turns up here in the room. When Drescher casts his unreliable, worn-out objects in metal – a process that results in their defamiliarization `– preserving them complete with all their weaknesses and signs of wear and tear, he is also paying them a kind of `homage`.” Buchmaier, Barbara: `Aspects of an Artist`s Existence` in Jürgen Drescher. Arbeiten bis heute, published by Galerie Isabella Czarnowska (formerly Kacprzak) / Mai 36 (Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2007), pp. 71-77, here p. 73.Unlike the balusters and packing cases in the current exhibition, which are casts of found objects, the animals that inhabit the gallery were initially modelled on photos and sketches. While Drescher`s method of dealing with the man-made objects was very direct, in that he used the actual objects as the basis for his casts, he wanted to approach the animals in a different way. As a result, despite being relatively true to life, his modelled sculptures of their bodies show noticeable differences from the real animals. This can be regarded `– without meaning to sound at all sentimental `– as a way of treating animals as fellow creatures and of examining our relationship to them through the process of reproducing their bodies.
And who feels more lost? The gorillas crouched in the corner of the room, contemplating the balusters scattered over the floor like jackstraws, or the person who takes a seat on the smooth, seemingly oversized bench, with a filthy cistern on the wall behind him and a bright pool of light like the cone of a theatre spotlight on the ground before him?
How do we adjust to a situation of homelessness? Should we go and stand in the corner formed by the packing cases and be ashamed of our very existence? Or is it not – in view of a global sense of forlornness and loss (of biodiversity and economic and social certainties) – time for a veritable party?
Christine Heidemann
1 Buchmaier, Barbara: `Aspects of an Artist` s Existence` in Jürgen Drescher. Arbeiten bis heute, published by Galerie Isabella Czarnowska (formerly Kacprzak) / Mai 36 (Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2007), pp. 71-77, here p. 73.
Jürgen Drescher 24.06.06 - 08.09.06
Whatever he produces in terms of artistic output, Jürgen Drescher always portrays himself – hence the title of the exhibition at Galerie Isabella Czarnowska.
Here he tries to imagine how other people will perceive his second name as the title of an exhibition.
The works on show include casts of everyday objects, packing cases and ladders, a spatial installation made of chipboard that is reminiscent of a trade fair booth and a film in which the artist dons a mask to slip into the role of art collector Christian Friedrich Flick. There are also a number of drawings that reflect the current possibilities and conditions of art.
Although all the works can be interpreted in one way or another, they also raise questions. And the artist, too, has questions he would like to answer in the process.
Aluminium sculptures
Our perception of these representational objects with their implications of craftsmanship and everyday situations opens up an abstract, atmospheric realm we may not be prepared for.
“It completely confuses me when something looks like it` s going to break; it`s as if I were personally defective, even though the material is not my mind or my body and it is subject to its own conditions.”
And yet he wants to push the material to the limits of its perceptibility in order to give it an ambiguous, unexpected appearance, to spread the seed of doubt – can it really be like this?
“If a sculpture has accidentally broken and upset my plans, can I show it without being ashamed – given that otherwise I unhesitatingly exhibit things that have got broken where I wasn` t involved?”
Spatial sculpture
Do two fair booths make a double bed, and is this a stage? The “Raum im Raum” (space inside a space), made of sections of chipboard screwed together, prefigures one of Drescher` s metal sculptures.
Video
In the video piece “Flick” from February 2005, Drescher attempts to lend the often controversial art collector his own artistic mentality with its tendency towards uncertainty, as a way of addressing the problematic nature of this figure.
Drawings
In the drawing “Es gibt keine Blauwale mehr” (There are no more blue whales), 2001, it is claimed that the reason why left-wing artists do not concern themselves with practical ecology is that they, too, construct their ideology on the basis of growth rather than subverting it by establishing alternative systems of values.
Does failure mean that questions are kept open? And does the question asked by the artist himself as to the significance and value of his own practice undermine the product character of his works?
“However, the more confident I feel myself to be, the more the number of presentable drawings – the work I consider successful at all – grows.”
A sense of certainty, enhanced by being challenged, generates a new perspective.
Barbara Buchmaier & Jürgen Drescher