GALERIE METRO

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Opening Friday, January 9, 2009, 7-10 pm

Open January 10 - Ferbuary 14, 2009

In Sudenburgs’s objects and installations meanings, purposes and relations of social processes in work, economy or communication are reduced to their basic structure to reveal their character of representation. As isolated signs his works provoke their interpretation as well as the reconstruction of a relation between them. This way the beholder gets lost in a maelstrom of speculation and associations, which seem to be as absurd as plausible.

BURNING BARREL

In the courtyard the visitor is received with a burning oil drum. In the 80s this image became an icon for the poverty in the ghettos of northamerican cities. In the context of the current financial crisis this image evokes visions of the near future in which the effects of the crisis on society become evident.

DISPLAY

A low showcase is installed at the entrance of the exhibition space. The title “Display” emphasises the purpose of the showcase and the question how a certain topic needs to be modeld in order to be able to be displayed. The rectangular forms in the showcase represent tearing apart a sheet of paper in an abstract way. Made in the context of the reconstruction of Stasi (secret police) files, this work refers to the 60th Anniversary of the foundation of GDR and FRG in 2009 and the practice of dealing with history.

NO 2ND THOUGHTS / EAST COAST WEST COAST

The installation “No 2nd Thoughts” on the right long wall of the gallery consists of two long, rectangular mirrors: one at the wall on which the writing “No 2nd Thoughts” is sprayed and one on the floor on which the work „East Coast West Coast” is installed: Two shovels whose red blades are welded on the front. Together with the work “¥€$” which is reflected in one of the mirrors the artist establishes a connection between the actual financial crisis and public infrastructure programs. 80 years after the crash of 1929 and 20 years after the wall came down, a strong state is requested again.

BLACK HOLE

“Black Hole” is a digital drawing, framed and mounted on the front wall of the gallery. „Black Hole” is the counterpoint to any associations, interpretations and coherences of the exhibition. In the contextualisation of everything with eveything it pictures the „point of no return”, when nothing makes sense anymore. The explosion of meaning in the other works faces the crash of meaning in this work.

IF THEN

The two lightboxes labeled with “IF” and “THEN” represent the basic elements of every causal connection. With no connecting context they break apart. Only by the question if both of them have to be purchased together brings them together again and reveals the context in which they are set in a commercial gallery.

¥€$ New Markets and Old Habits

In the context of the exhibition “¥€$” is the main catalyst of meaning. With reference to this work the other works unfold their possibilities of meaning. It refers to the hysterical affirmation of capitalism, which stands in contrast with the incapability of action. With “IF” and “THEN” in the centre “¥€$” and “Black Hole” built the two extremes of dialectic, in which difference is no mean of distinction any more.

THE CRACK

“The Cracks” are frames whose glas has been broken and glued together again by the artist, then photographed and put under the same glas. In this work coincidence happens with absolute neccessity. The same method leads to completely different and unforseen results. In this purely formal causality the cracks correspond with “IF” and “THEN”.