Exhibitions

Dates: 2nd April–7th May 2005

Stumpf’s lovingly-made mixed-media objects, installations and text-based works possess an engaging cryptic quality, an aspect of the power of visual art to assert its resemblance to linguistic form. In this case, the throttling ciphers of vine, noose, chain, and rope – as well as dangling urban Pandora’s-boxes – possess a morbid syntax; what Rosalind Krauss might call ‘Sculpture in the Expanded Forest’ for its pungent element of Germanic gothic. Filtered through these dark collisions of nature and culture and a contemporary affinity for day-to-day materials is a persistent yearning for imaginative autonomy, as when the inanimate articles of folklore assume a life apart from their creators’ Ovidian whims.

Laurence Figgis, 2005

Born in Mannheim, Germany in 1969 Stumpf gained a Diploma from the State Academy of Fine Art, Karlsruhe (2001) and an MA (Fine Art) from Glasgow School of Art (2004). He is a current committee member of Transmission Gallery, Glasgow and a co-founder and curator of kaiserpassage 21a, Karlsruhe. Recent exhibitions include ‘Deb?ºtantenausstellung’ State Academy of Fine Art, Karlsruhe (2005); ‘Pilot 1, 2004’, London; ‘New Work Scotland 2004’, The Collective Gallery, Edinburgh and EAST International 2003. Stumpf lives and works in Glasgow.

A limited edition publication and poster set will be available from the gallery for the duration of the exhibition.