Gerwald Rockenschaub: Bend It
In his ninth solo exhibition in the Galerie Eva Presenhuber Gerwald Rockenschaub is showing a new group of works: under the title bend it, Rockenschaub has assembled recent wall pieces made of overlapping sheets of plexiglass. The artist has combined these works with painted surfaces in an installation one can enter, in which the boundaries between two- and three-dimensionality are blurred.
What are referred to in German as the 鈥渂ildende K眉nste鈥� are known in English as the 鈥渧isual arts.鈥� Whereas the German phrase emphasizes the 鈥渂ildend,鈥� or shaping, element in non-representational art forms, the English term registers our visual perception of works of art. In the former it is the act of creation that is uppermost, in the latter it is the appreciation of what is created. In the work of Gerwald Rockenschaub both aspects are equally acknowledged. The artist deliberately designs his works in such a way that the act of seeing itself comes to the fore as a consequence of what is seen.
In the 1990s Gerwald Rockenschaub was one of the first artists to consistently design his works on a computer and delegate their fabrication to special firms and craftsmen. His pictures, objects, and sculptures are often made of such industrial materials as colored plastic foils, aluminum, PVC, or plexiglass, which the artist has used continuously since 1987. Rockenschaub extends his emphasis on machine fabrication to his choice of titles, for his works always carry their technical designations.
Rockenschaub鈥檚 recent plexiglass wall pieces are unlike early works from this group in one essential point: heretofore the artist affixed the sheets, some transparent, some opaque, directly onto the wall, as in a monumental installation in the Galerie Paul Maenz in 1989. He now layers them. In addition, he cuts them into irregularly angled or playfully biomorphic shapes or riddles them with holes. As a result, the colors of the sheets blend into new shades, producing multiple visual overlappings and clashes.
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In his ninth solo exhibition in the Galerie Eva Presenhuber Gerwald Rockenschaub is showing a new group of works: under the title bend it, Rockenschaub has assembled recent wall pieces made of overlapping sheets of plexiglass. The artist has combined these works with painted surfaces in an installation one can enter, in which the boundaries between two- and three-dimensionality are blurred.
What are referred to in German as the 鈥渂ildende K眉nste鈥� are known in English as the 鈥渧isual arts.鈥� Whereas the German phrase emphasizes the 鈥渂ildend,鈥� or shaping, element in non-representational art forms, the English term registers our visual perception of works of art. In the former it is the act of creation that is uppermost, in the latter it is the appreciation of what is created. In the work of Gerwald Rockenschaub both aspects are equally acknowledged. The artist deliberately designs his works in such a way that the act of seeing itself comes to the fore as a consequence of what is seen.
In the 1990s Gerwald Rockenschaub was one of the first artists to consistently design his works on a computer and delegate their fabrication to special firms and craftsmen. His pictures, objects, and sculptures are often made of such industrial materials as colored plastic foils, aluminum, PVC, or plexiglass, which the artist has used continuously since 1987. Rockenschaub extends his emphasis on machine fabrication to his choice of titles, for his works always carry their technical designations.
Rockenschaub鈥檚 recent plexiglass wall pieces are unlike early works from this group in one essential point: heretofore the artist affixed the sheets, some transparent, some opaque, directly onto the wall, as in a monumental installation in the Galerie Paul Maenz in 1989. He now layers them. In addition, he cuts them into irregularly angled or playfully biomorphic shapes or riddles them with holes. As a result, the colors of the sheets blend into new shades, producing multiple visual overlappings and clashes.
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