 Postcard (Essen), 2005 Silkscreen print and forex, 78 3/4 x 112 5/8 in., 200 x 286 cm Katharina Fritsch "I find the play between reality and apparition very interesting. I think my work moves back and forth between these two poles." Katharina Fritsch White Cube is pleased to present a new body of work by German artist Katharina Fritsch, her first show in London since her exhibition at Tate Modern in 2001. Fritsch is known for creating iconic objects, imagery and sculptural installations that imprint themselves on the mind. Her work creates a tension between the familiar and the uncanny, where humour is tempered by an incessant sense of unease. In this exhibition Fritsch has created a site-specific installation, transforming the exhibition space into a municipal park, or at least the memory of a park that she frequented as a child in the town of Essen. To create these mental landscapes Fritsch has created works from postcards sent to her by her grandfather in the 1970's and 80's. These romanticized scenes are set within the industrial landscape of the Ruhr district, referred to by the artist as her "heimat" or homeland. Transferred onto large, individually silk-screened panels, the single-colour matt painted surface is the result of a meticulous and extremely precise handcrafted printing process that appears deceptively simple. Each panel depicts the scene in a single colour, as if the other colours in the spectrum have faded, over time, by the bleaching of the sun to leave a trace, or a melancholic memory as if viewing the picturesque scene at twilight. Fritsch has specifically mapped out the space by dividing the gallery with two identical central enclosures, which surround the viewer with three large panels. Composed of imagery of detailed parkland, each panel, in its differing hue, provides an intimate backdrop for a single sculpture placed on a white pedestal. One is a pale grey vase, a perfect geometric form from Fritsch's imagination; the other a classical sculpture of a woman's torso rendered in pure white, carefully scaled down from a bronze sculpture Fritsch had known from her childhood. Fritsch creates a pictorial world where the materiality of an object is distilled by memory and dream. Katharina Fritsch was born in 1956 in Essen. Solo exhibitions have included those staged at Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (1988); Dia Center for the Arts, New York (1993); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco (1996); Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel (1997); Tate Modern, London (2001); and K21 Kunstsammlung im Standehaus, Düsseldorf (2002). Fritsch represented Germany at the 46th Venice Biennale in 1995 alongside Martin Honert and Thomas Ruff. Fritsch lives and works in Düsseldorf. Exhibition: 15 September - 21 October 2006 Gallery hours: Tues-Sat 10 am - 6 pm White Cube 48 Hoxton Square GB-London N1 6PB Telephone +44 (0)20 7930 53 73 Fax +44 020 7749 74 80 www.whitecube.com |
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