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120710: Christine König Galerie Valentin Ruhry New Port Beach
Christine König Galerie
Valentin Ruhry New Port Beach
30.06.2010 – 30.07.2010
Onto the staircase to surf
“Nobody knows where he is heading, if he doesn’t know where he comes from”, the French philosopher Claude Lévi-Strauss once said. In reference to his words, Valentin Ruhry rigged up an exhibition at the Galerie Christine König using diverse natural resources.
New Port Beach is based on the positions of an amateur craftsman and that of an engineer. Which one of the two has, and had, the stronger standing in society? In his combination and differentiated arrangement of assembling the materials, which could be interpreted as a natural resource or as garbage, the roles of an amateur craftsman and that of an engineer are lovingly brought together, proving that the difference can be minimal.
The title of the exhibition is illustrated by a 20 m2 undulating light installation. Yet this “stationary” wave, made of heavy iron profiles and luminous fluorescent tubes, still mediates the feeling conveyed by the sea and the beach; vacation memories captured by snapshots of a New Port Beach sunset on the shores of the Pacific. On the one hand his photo installations remind of Caspar David Friedrich’s landscape paintings, and on the other the continuous interaction of the picture with color gradients reminds of light as an artistic material.
In the second room, the constructive element prevails. U.F.O., a stranded flying object reminds of the amateur craftsman who recycled found material, while Magnet 2, a piece made of plasterboards and sockets makes the engineer visible.
By Alexander Lass
Christine König Galerie
1040 Wien, Schleifmühlgasse 1a
Tel: +43-1-585 74 74
Fax: +43-1-585 74 74-24
email:office@christinekoeniggalerie.at
http://www.christinekoeniggalerie.at
Opening hours: Tue - Fri 11:00 a.m. – 7.00 p.m., Sat 11:00 a.m. – 3.00 p.m.
120710
