Christian Aberle
Eddy

GROUND FLOOR

CHRISTIAN ABERLE
Eddy

The flood of signifiers and arbitrary signs – not only in our society but also in art – is accompanied by the disappearance of objects. Christian Aberle is someone who loves objects for their own sake, like a craftsman. This involves, that the Cologne based artist enjoys to spend ludicrous effort in processing drawings and paintings that often reduce the idea of technical perfection to absurdity. In these works Aberle always addresses the world and its standards, but also himself and his actions.

“Eddy” is the first show of LRRH_ Aerial /chapter_² – “Kite”. The series on display combines six kites, hand-painted with dispersion on nylon kite-fabric. The chosen, rhombic prototype shape is called “Eddy”, after its inventor William A. Eddy (1896 – 1962). The single kites of the series can be combined into one object. The contour of this combination is no longer diamond-shaped but more reminiscent of a grenade, plug or heraldry. This outline, in turn, determines the central colour area of six in each kite. The gentle, hard-edged colour modulations in each area cause the surface to look like it has creases. The dispersal of the polygonal colour fields was defined by connecting the four corner points of all kites with all others. The resulting composition is crystal clear and dissecting and the same goes for the range of colours. The kite tails, made of shimmering braid, are “puffy” in comparison, causing a “tender disjunction”. “Eddy” #1 – 6 are absolutely airworthy. To imagine these highly delicate and time-wrought paintings exposed to the whims of the wind is nonetheless exciting.

ATTIC

DANIEL BAKER
Reflector

The London based artist Daniel Baker exhibits his installation “Reflector” in the “Attic” showroom. Baker’s work examines the role of artistic practice in the enactment of social agency via the reconfiguration of aspects of Gypsy visuality. His work is exhibited internationally and can be found in collections worldwide.
“Reflector” comprises artworks that focus on the performative phenomenon of concealment through display, perhaps more commonly understood as camouflage. The sculptural works of Baker turn the convention of camouflage on its head by performing concealment through the conspicuous enactment of immersive scale and dazzling optics. In “Canopy”, for example, the artist has rendered the intended function of foliage camouflage redundant by gilding its surface with bright metal leaf. The “Surveillance Blanket” and “Baffle Blanket” series were inspired by the most basic of two-way mirrors. Here the convention of striped mirror, used to disrupt any clear image of the observer lurking behind, is amplified in scale and dimension resulting in softly melting swathes of shiny matter which again draw the attention of the outsider, whilst maintaining the privacy of that which is hidden beneath. The “Antipattern” series embodies the notion of pattern disruption as a way of reaching new interpretations of that which we have become familiar. The “Bric” series extends the idea of bricolage by combining the illusory device of geometric patterning with the reflective qualities of the mirrored surface in order to highlight the ambiguity of the physical and psychological spaces that we occupy.