gisela hoffmann
she speaks of lines, space lines, bands, sequences, fabric-installations, related to space, transparency, inside - outside, tension, fugue, eugen gomringer talks of strategic space. her work is easy, she marks, her prozess is modest with emphasis, she needs no van, she picks up her work and comes with a concept. the solid, heavy that is neccesary for her concept she finds in the historical building, here she creates new spaces by actions, solid is replaced by light metal-constructions and in between stretched colored gauze, gauze tapes of certain width and color off the roll.
her wall objects are reliefs whose lines do not cling on the wall, they are always three dimensional. she tilts the lines into the room with metal pins that are fixed at an angle to the back of the object. onto these she tightens her gauze. a fixed spatial color line of definite thickness is created by light gauze in tension, now she creates rhythms, often as groups of lines, fugues, whose lines are recorded, two or three times in succession, repeated, varied, a temporal sequence, rapid suggestions that could be continued. new in her work are exterior angles to mark a level, which releases space, above and below for neon tubes, they are creating a light space between these corner-marks.
we will show two early, autonomous works, view II and view III of 1999, here a thin metal- construction, some times only some narrow metal tubes in their "light-weight", still in contrast to the tension of the even lighter fabric webs, they are free in space. her spatial objects incorporate the viewer's imagination, creating spaces between her markings and insets.
her action as tension always creates straight lines, no curves, no circles, no amorphous structures. nothing flyes, nothing flees. it begins and ends, although the idea allows these lines to pierce heavy walls in the building and leads them into the dark. how can she do that? you just need the imagination. 1 line that pierces is 2 lines in reality, the line stops at the heavy wall, is clamped, it continues behind the wall in a new space, with beginning and end. you may call it illusion, you can also call it fantasy and reality. a pair of scissors destroys everything easy. perhaps it will make the destroyer look like a fool who does not want to hold out or understand a suggestion, an action.
vielschichtig (complex)
in the exhibition by gisela hoffmann many walls are free to integrate the collection in a complex manner. mostly flat, often small works or series by other artists are shown here. discoveries from the gallery's drawers, the theme: works with very basic, simple approaches. no exuberance, no color-orgies, no color-experiments, no monochrome surfaces, collages or documents of rules of color, fotos, op-art ...
very basic actions - embossing - cuts - sections - folds - maybe ironic paths for orientation, such as the vertical square to the oblique shape and the oblique square to the vertical shape - serial games with rules, - the punching of small circles in horizontal lines. but the circles oppose punching out as cuts - absurdities, such as the violent piercing of precious paper sheets in horizontal paths, destructions that later have to be transported with white gloves - destruction with an obvious meaning like + - as a branding - the smear marks of the shots through cardboard - the circle that gets its shape from the thick matches and their charcoal as a flat track from the burnt wood - the soft embossing of the hard nails - the visible sequence of actions, before and after, like that basic folds in a sheet of handmade paper, the abrasion of the surface of this folded bundle with chalk, the observation of these folds as marks and the subsequent opening of this bundle shows that the sheet is marked forever, the action recorded - the memory of the aversion to the exercise book and the compulsion be called help - a din A4 sheet of transparent paper with a drawn center-line evoking a new meaning in the "din language". 2 din A5 surfaces are created. the flat sheet with a diagonal fold destroys, individualizes the neutral shape, adds an attractive jag to the industrial form. the transparency of the paper in this folding, depending on the background, sometimes seems white, sometimes milky, sometimes dark. the center line sinks, has lost its meaning, creates curiosity and joy.
