Hungry Mice & Salty Pepper
Isabella Fürnkäs’ first solo exhibition at Galerie Clages evokes rapture and a loss of control. Already from outside the exhibition, oversized eyes direct one’s gaze toward four life-size figures, which are more than simply physical counterparts. On the contrary, they accumulate in the space and almost oppress the visitor with their drawn-on sensory organs, which grow in place of their faces and expand throughout the room. With their oversized teeth, ears, and tongues, they formally draw attention to the different avenues of sensory perception and seem to do so at an unabashed volume.
Billowing fabrics and garments draped over the mannequins stand in contrast to the flat drawings. If we were to read them one-dimensionally, they‘d recall Fürnkäs’ earlier video installations. In those works, she would overlap visual fragments in the style of a collage, which enabled a sort of intrusive desire for still images as points of orientation in the flood of images produced by our temporally, spatially, and visually complex world. Among the garments, one scans two kimonos, which could signal a biographical reference to Fürnkas’ childhood in Japan but also allow space for a feeling of distance and foreignness.
This drifting moment of being-thrown-off and the search for a calm point makes one‘s eyes wander further through the space. Droplets drawn on the gallery’s walls guide one‘s flowing gaze. The droplets, which inevitably conjure associations with tears, are a recurring motif in Fürnkäs’ work. They subtly work through the contradiction of water’s neutrality as an element and its natural fluidity in the form of tears and sweat, evoking the type of physical sensations and emotions that evade our control. There is something liberating in this ineluctable movement — no in-between state, nothing asked or sought-after. It seems that the overextended limbs of the figures reach, too, for that sort of autonomy.
Text by Julia Haarmann
Clages Gallery
Cologne
Unpredictable Liars, Multimedia installation, mixed media, various Japanese fabrics & cloth, oil sticks
Drops, wall installation, oil sticks
Untitled, Acryl glas, oil sticks
Uncanny Valley, video installation, kinetic sand, antenna
Hot Sauce, sound piece, surround sound
Press release
http://mariettaclages.de
http://kubaparis.com/hungry-mice-salty-pepper/
http://ende.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/2019605/hungry-mice-salty-pepper-at-galerie-clages-cologne
