translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville,
100214: Mudam Luxembourg: Elmar Trenkwalder
Mudam Luxembourg
Elmar Trenkwalder
05.10.2013 – 09.03.2014
Ironic metamorphorses
By Daniela Gregori
How easily one finds oneself making judgements too fast. On the way to MUDAM Luxembourg, one has detected it in the glass passageway between the main building and the attached pavilion. Predominantly in a mustard yellow colour, larger than life-sized, rhythmic in sequence. The entity appears somehow far-eastern, and even from a distance one identifies it as ceramic because of the sheen of glaze. An Asian artist who is worth discovering? Findings of a religious or ritual practice, transferred into a museum context? Or an Art Nouveau exhibit after all, or even one of symbolism?
On closer inspection, the rhythmic, symmetric entities turn out not to be standardised by any means, but much more as richly detailed, differentiated works by Elmar Trenkwalder. Here, forms and ornaments from architecture are cited, it's draped and flourished, added and fluted, but above all, things are eroticised. Of course, one could say that a phallus is to be seen in everything, and not every symmetrically mirrored curvature has to belong to a willing dame. Is everything only an ambiguous allusion or an ambiguous unambiguity? The gaze glides in an almost somnambulistic way over these fantastic landscapes, body parts that seem to dissolve in ornaments. In the abundance and motifs offered, it's to be understood that here, in connection with this oeuvre, you're not only occasionally handling notions such as obsession, but also subversion.
The artist isn't only a master of his discipline in these definitely ironic metamorphoses. Since 1986, Trenkwalder has busied himself with ceramics and meanwhile, his work has reached dimensions that demand a considerable amount of skill and experience. The unfired clay demands its own static, the process of shrinkage during drying needs to be calculated in the multipartite works. Artistically viewed, this may be irrelevant, but it would be apparent if the technical skills were lacking. Suchlike is seen far too seldom.
Mudam Luxembourg
1499 Luxembourg, 3 Park Dräi Eechelen
Tel: +352 45 37 85 1
Email: info@mudam.lu
http://www.mudam.lu
Mehr Texte von translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville
100214
Mudam Luxembourg
1499 Luxembourg, 3 Park Dräi Eechelen
Tel: +352 45 37 85 1
Email: info@mudam.lu
http://www.mudam.lu
Mudam Luxembourg
1499 Luxembourg, 3 Park Dräi Eechelen
Tel: +352 45 37 85 1
Email: info@mudam.lu
http://www.mudam.lu