Objects are closer than they appear Group Show

The Buchmann Gallery is happy to announce the group exhibition Objects are closer than they appear. 

The exhibition’s title is a variation of the well-known phrase used as a safety warning on rear-view mirrors in American automobiles. The exhibition adopts this phrase as a point of departure to reflect on the relationship between sensibility and nearness. All of the works exhibited share a specific reference to the phenomenon of nearness and a sensory tactility. The phenomenological, imaginary and emotional aspect of the works shown, deals with possibilities of perception and poses questions on approaches to perception.

A series of works which either make use of mirrors or reflecting surfaces are presented in the exhibition and point towards the origin of the exhibition’s title and at the same time expand on the utilitarian function of the mirror and its possibilities to play with our perceptions. 

While Daniel Buren splits up the reflection through his visual tool the stripe thus creating a dividing line between real surfaces and reflections; Alberto Garutti uses the mirror as a memory of past images, moments and reflections. The holes and the title of the work serve to bridge the gap with this past and as an invitation to observers to enter this in their imaginations.

The new group of works by Tatsuo Miyajima has the abbreviation C.T.C.S. in its title. This stands for Counter Time Counter Self and precedes all the titles of Miyajima’s work using mirrors and is to be understood as a connection or fusion between the work and the observer. The observer and the surroundings become a part of the perpetually counting work of art.    

The reflecting black form in the photographic work by Wilhelm Mundt incorporates the outline of his Trashstones. The observer or objects reflected in its surface become a part of the work within a seemingly dematerialized space which knows neither proximity nor distance.     

Bettina Pousttchi is showing a work from her ensemble Squeezers – twisted street bollards – which obviously takes the title of the exhibition quite literally by its ingenious combinations which achieve an anthropomorphic appearance.  

According to the concepts of ancient times a beam of optic rays was emitted from the eye which informed the observer of the distance, position, size, form and colours of an object. The eye scans the surface just as the hand touches the body of the beloved one. The sculptures by William Tucker and Tony Cragg in the exhibition exemplify this emotionalized perceptual model.     

The pastel-coloured abstractions in Fiona Rae’s latest paintings are variations on a cartoon which the artist developed in an extensive series of drawings. The influences of calligraphy and Chinese ink painting are evident. Rae exploits our innate faculty of recognizing familiar forms in anything we see and which stand closer to us than mere abstract-geometric compositions. Again here the close relationship of the eye and the hand are remarkable. In an interview Rae describes it like this. “I want the urgency of paint marks and gestures made only by the hand; the need to make a mark that goes back thousands of years.”

If you wish to obtain further information on the artists or images of the

works, please do not hesitate to contact the gallery.