Shadowindows is an installation from summer 2023 as part of the exhibition Tumult (curated by Maja Smoszna) at the Alte Münze Berlin.
The installation consists of three main works that are connected by the idea and process of playfully deconstructing space, painting and writing simultaneously.
One of my favourite parts of this piece is the naked stretcher frame hanging on the wall, covering parts of the window, which also has those nice little black crosses holding the little glass tiles. The light is positioned so that the shadow of the frame comes out with a lot of contrast, mirroring the dark crosses in the actual window behind it. Chopped up from the shadows and the wooden frame, we have some sticky tape on the wall with drawings, icons, words, phrases and quotes that poetically reflect or theoretically comment on the situation and the setup in a mindmappy way.
Then we have a raw canvas hanging at a short distance from the wall, again filled with words written in black and blue pastel chalk. Most of the words come from an interview with my dear friend and colleague Marcel Schwittlick. We started talking about text and code and ended up wondering about cyberspace. I took some notes as we talked. You can listen to an excerpt of the interview here.
The work, floating in front of the wall, casts a shadow. In this shadow, and written on tape on the wall, there is a second layer of writing that connects the canvas and the wall through written words. The words REFLEX, HALFSHADOW and CONNEX, for example, reflect and summarise this small interplay. The word COIN, which appears in several works here, not only reflects the venue, the Alte Münze. It also manifests and celebrates a crucial element that comes together with the meaning and myth of symbols, as in symballein, the ancient Greek word for symbol, meaning ‘to bring together’ something like a broken coin.
The heavy brown oil painting sits on the floor, as if it never made it up the wall or had already been taken down. Is it still worth putting it up there? It looks earthy, perhaps it would rather sit or even lie completely on the floor. The sides of the painting are covered in brown varnish, which looks rusty and shiny at the same time. I have always been haunted by the idea that Roland Barthes once expressed so beautifully when he said that the more we look at signs and symbols, the more their edges blur. This idea and focus on the edge has always fascinated me and has followed me in my painting and sculptural work, where I like to pay close attention to the edges, the frames and related phenomena.
Not only does the painting look very earthy in colour, but in making it I actually scratched and floated it over the ground. Intentionally scratched words on the surface are juxtaposed with more planned but accidental scratches.
A huge thank you goes out to Joanna Zvonar and Shona Stark. Thanks also to Maja Smoszna and the dedicated crew of artists from this show.
Fotos by Shona Stark and Volo Bevza.
Berlin, 2023
Julius Voigt 