Daniel von Sturmer at 52nd Venice Biennale
1 Jun 2007
The Object of Things is a multimedia installation comprising a number of components: a 60 metre continuous plywood plane that folds and weaves through the exhibition space, 5 small video projections and 5 sculptural objects.
The various components of the work can be considered as propositions about the relationship between video space and actual space, the sculptural and the pictorial, the factual and the metaphorical. It concerns the folding and unfolding of space, time and meaning, and explores how a complexity of meaning can be built up from apparently simple events and actions.
The largest component - the plywood plane - is constructed in response to the given architecture, and folds into, over, around and through the space, shifting height and direction as it goes. The structure forms an interplay between the space, the work and the viewer where the viewer is invited to negotiate the structure as a kind of unfolding linear sequence, but one which can be considered from multiple points of view at any given moment.
In this way the plane activates the space as a sculptural form but also acts as a platform upon which the other events of the work are staged. The 5 small custom built screens which sit atop its surface are made from aluminium and drafting film allowing the image to be clearly visible under bright light, forming a kind of equivalence between the space of the gallery and the space of the video.
The screens relate to both sculpture and painting, in some respects conflating the two. The videos reference the processes and materials of modernism and minimalism in studio bound experiments which play with painterly values of colour, form, scale, flatness and depth using unassuming materials such as acrylic paint, acetate, modelling clay and wood. These experiments in material potential describe a kind of looking where the ordinary and expected assumes another order of signification.
All of the elements in The Object of Things - the objects, videos and structure - add up to propositions about the viewers’ viewing - and how meaning is formed by an encounter where moving images unfold between and beside physical objects, made from both found and sculptural materials. They are intended to pose questions about the nature of art, the embodiment of time, and how context shapes the apparent meaning and experience of the work.
Visit www.danielvonsturmer.com
The various components of the work can be considered as propositions about the relationship between video space and actual space, the sculptural and the pictorial, the factual and the metaphorical. It concerns the folding and unfolding of space, time and meaning, and explores how a complexity of meaning can be built up from apparently simple events and actions.
The largest component - the plywood plane - is constructed in response to the given architecture, and folds into, over, around and through the space, shifting height and direction as it goes. The structure forms an interplay between the space, the work and the viewer where the viewer is invited to negotiate the structure as a kind of unfolding linear sequence, but one which can be considered from multiple points of view at any given moment.
In this way the plane activates the space as a sculptural form but also acts as a platform upon which the other events of the work are staged. The 5 small custom built screens which sit atop its surface are made from aluminium and drafting film allowing the image to be clearly visible under bright light, forming a kind of equivalence between the space of the gallery and the space of the video.
The screens relate to both sculpture and painting, in some respects conflating the two. The videos reference the processes and materials of modernism and minimalism in studio bound experiments which play with painterly values of colour, form, scale, flatness and depth using unassuming materials such as acrylic paint, acetate, modelling clay and wood. These experiments in material potential describe a kind of looking where the ordinary and expected assumes another order of signification.
All of the elements in The Object of Things - the objects, videos and structure - add up to propositions about the viewers’ viewing - and how meaning is formed by an encounter where moving images unfold between and beside physical objects, made from both found and sculptural materials. They are intended to pose questions about the nature of art, the embodiment of time, and how context shapes the apparent meaning and experience of the work.
Visit www.danielvonsturmer.com
