 © the Artist, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ Andreas Slominski "Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Walking next to the pony is different from riding it". Andreas Slominski in "Dreams"; eds Francesco Bonami and Hans Ulrich Obrist, published on the occasion of 48th Venice Biennale, 1999 (Turin, Italy: Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo per l'Arte, 1999). Andreas Slominski is best known for his traps. Since 1986 he has been collecting and copying models designed to ensnare a whole range of animals from voles to birds, weasels to foxes. These elaborate structures, designed to entice animals, work on the principle of temptation. To the human eye, they may possess a sculptural beauty, but this is undercut by the sense of repulsion and brutality incurred by their function. However, within the gallery, they retain the element of temptation, as the audience, curiosity piqued, inevitably begins to wonder if they are fully functioning, assuming that as humans they would be able to foil these traps. The traps announce Slominski as a trickster, and indeed the ludic element in these works extends to other projects. In order to exhibit a stolen bicycle pump at his show at the Deutsche Guggenheim in 1989, instead of just snatching the pump from the bike, as many a petty thief before him, he sawed off the section of the cross bar, taking that along with the pump. For the same show, he hired a professional gardener to plant a dead tree stump amid the Lime trees on "Unter den Linden" where the Guggenheim is located in Berlin. To those who had not witnessed the planting, the appearance of the stump was inexplicable and for the local authorities it was distressing enough to warrant the area being sectioned off, like the scene of a crime. Common to all these works and others that have come since, is a narrative. In many instances the object exhibited in the gallery is the culmination of an elaborate sequence of events; Slominski has often covered his tracks, chapters of the narrative! Plans for the artist's first show at Sadie Coles HQ are still under wraps, but Slominski has indicated an interest in the postbox adjacent to the gallery on Regent Street, a 40-piece classical orchestra, and London's traffic signs. Andreas Slominski lives and works in Hamburg. He has shown throughout Europe and the United States in both group and solo shows, including a site-specific commission for the Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin (1999) and earlier this year at the Fondazione Prada in Milan. October 8 - November 8, 2003 Hours: Tue-Sat 10 am - 6 pm Sadie Coles Gallery 35 Heddon Street GB-London W1B 4BP Telefon +44 20 7434 2227 Fax +44 20 7434 2228 www.sadiecoles.com |
 |