Sorcha Dallas

UND | VOR UND ZURÜCK NACH | RECHTS UND ZURÜCK SCHWING | WEIT VOR, ZURÜCK

HALIL AKDENIZ, ERDAG AKSEL, RAPHAEL DANKE, MANUEL GRAF, RITA MCBRIDE, CARLO MOLLINO
organized by Raphael Danke and Manuel Graf

OPENING FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 2010 EXHIBITION DATES MARCH 13 – APRIL 24, 2010

Thousands of years ago, a woman or man built a receptacle, a vessel- perhaps a net constructed out of twigs or fibers, or a pouch made from a giant leaf or leather. Later, they fashioned this receptacle out of stone, wood, and eventually clay. Basically, the same materials and forms that were used to build their shelters or shields- in other words a skin, a shell containing something one wishes to protect.

The woman and the man are thinking of tomorrow. What one eats now is used up again tomorrow. They therefore require a belly for the future, a vessel in which food can be stored for the time to come. The forms these vessels take could very well be described as imitations of models found in nature, perhaps as an abstraction of the own body. But anyone who has ever made a vessel woven out of plants or molded from clay can confirm the excitement that sets in while creating the simplest of forms. Beyond striving for artistic originality, there seems to be a need for forms that have repeated through millennia. Is it possible that the same generative forces exhibit themselves in various independent ways within both nature and art? “My instinct tells me that they followed the same laws as Nature”, Goethe reports from Italy, describing the art and architecture of the Greeks.

We are very pleased to present works by Rita McBride, Halil Akdeniz, Erdag Aksel and Carlo Mollino. Without putting too much stress on the connections, one can contend that all four have never lost sight of the “application” of their art, its potential utility. All four are teachers, whether through numerous publications or in direct contact with people.

Alongside work by the invited artists, Raphael Danke and I show ceramic vessels that are intended to recall- sometimes more, and sometimes less- ancient cultures. Halil Akdeniz was born in Anatolia, and his drawings are therefore placed in proximity to vessels that clearly recall the ancient Anatolian civilization of the Hittites. The vessels placed near Rita McBride’s work can’t be categorized quite so clearly. They could be pre-Columbian, Cypriot, and Egyptian. In this way we hope to convey the delight of a time-shift that comprises of thousands of years, the gentleness and fraternity one senses when thinking simultaneously of Erdag Aksel and his neolithic ancestors. Or a sense of bewilderment about how much the Etruscan desires for comfort and eroticism so strikingly resemble those of Carlo Mollino.

And | Forward And Back To The | Right And Back Swing | Far Forward, Back

Manuel Graf