THOMAS PALME
DER AUGUSTINER-KOMPLEX
March 5 - April 24, 2010
ANDREAS GRIMM MUNCHEN is pleased to announce a solo exhibition with new works by Thomas Palme.
“Only that which does not stop to hurt remains to be remembered” - Nietzsche
Nietzsche’s statement is as consistent as daring and as anticipatory as politically/historically correct. It is consistent, because it is made from a position within a culture that declares pain, torture and death to be a promise of salvation as well as a claim to superiority. Without question, that’s yucky. It is daring in establishing an individual position as a common ground, yet pain is a foremost individual experience. The statement is poltically/historically correct once perceived as being based on the historical grounds which Joseph Beuys defines as the “Schmerzraum” (the room of pain), “hinter den Knochen wird gezählt” (behind the bones the counting starts) . “it still hurts” adds Cary Leibowitz and INXS know: “the gift you gave is gonna last forever”.
The thought that something is being remembered in response to ongoing pain may qualify first of all as a key to Germany’s history and understanding of its presence. But it is not only history that hurts. According to Georg Trackl, “all that lives is poignant” . And so it is not at all unlikely that despite much enlightened progress there are still some who find themselves troubled by the annoying and all-embarrassing phantom pain of religion.
Without doubt, there are certainly more important issues to be addressed, but okay, here we go: And there they are, hanging out around a case of “Augustiner” beer, a group of saintly women with animalistic countenances. The case of beer is suspended with chains from the ceiling, promising intoxication and being earthbound. From here on ropes originate and meander throughout the space holding drawings attached to them by clothespins, joined by plaster-prostheses modelled towards the body of the artist as an action’s relic. Some hold twigs forming crucifixes.
At the heart of the show is a group of large-format drawings presenting the images of prominent female saints. Palme’s imagery quotes prominent historically established images. The drawings however vary and reinterpret decisive aspects of their historical model, as well as depicting the ladies with animal heads. Thomas Palme shows Katharina von Emmerich, for example, sitting upright in her bed, her head heavily bandaged, holding a crucifix in her hands. Bandage and bed-scene are reminiscent of the painting of Gabriel Cornelius von Max from 1885. Von Max however shows the stigmata of the “ecstatic” woman, and emphasises her pains by having both her hands clutching her head-bandage with her whiny, fundamentally unhappy face viewing a crucified Christ lying on the bedcover before her. In Palme’s drawing the bandage has mutated into some form of bedcap, the hands hold the crucifix and the facial expression of the gorilla that is Katharina von Emmerich, is extraordinarily relaxed. Her contemplating gaze is passing well over the crucified Christ into an undistinguishable distance. Thus the drawings establish a notion of dialogue in more than one way: firstly between the saint and the animal (which is chosen so as to more accurately portray the saint) and secondly between the drawing and its historical reference source. Apart from that, Edith Stein has her appearance as cat, Theresa of Avila performs as orangutan in habit, Brigitta of Sweden shows as meerkat, Katharina of Siena is all convincing in posting the promise: “Each tear has it’s own household” and as a dog.
Without any doubt however, it has to be acknowledged that Therese of Lisieux is cutting quite a dash, as she really is such a pin-up! This shy and charming smile of her sheep’s head, this subtle, discreet baring of teeth… The true erotic appeal however unfolds in the audaciously dynamic flow of pencil lines in the overtly eventful depiction of her gown.
So here they team up, the fervently blessed. They have lived their sacred lives and spread the words about the progress of their deliriums, their droughts of the heart, their ecstasies and voluptuous raptures. “Of all the desperately ill, the holy know best how to derive a benefit from their suffering,” claims E.M. Cioran. At the sight of Thomas Palme’s drawings one is inclined to insist to differ! Artists are the most gifted sufferers:
And there they hang, affixed with clothespins and in great numbers, sheets of paper showing off non representational line-drawings. The succession of strokes allow for the viewer to track vigorous, fast and force-full movements. The density of the multiple layers of such line-movements gives the impression of an almost manic labouring of the artist who slaves himself convincingly by drawing with both hands simultaneously. Each sheet a battleground, a document of a rapturous event that bears as its subject matter exactly this vehemence and rage. It is quite visible and obvious: here something does not cease to hurt. It remains visually comprehensible in each depiction and emerges in the follow order of the works to form a visual spectacle both exciting and inspiring.
This certainly is a pleasant way to watch someone suffer.
Above all this, as the executioner’s sword as well as the promise of salvation, hangs the beer crate. Augustinus stands in for the inescapability from original sin and the inevitability of eternal damnation in hell - just one of many plausible causes for pain to choose among. On the other hand there is beer. It brings relief through intoxication and as a brain-cell exterminating poison, which of course only hurts later. Both, Augustinus and the beer are not unimportant for the artist, so he claims.
We can only hope that the chains will bear it all.
Rafael von Uslar
„Der Augustiner-Komplex“ is Thomas Palme’s second solo exhibition at Andreas Grimm in Munich. Palme has recently exhibited by Galerie Christoffer Egelund, Copenhagen, Denmark and Stageback Gallery, Shanghai, China. On May 1st 2010, Palme will open his first solo exhibition at Kunsthalle Krems, Austria.
For more information, please contact the gallery at +49 89 388 59 240 or verena@andreasgrimmgallery.com
ANDREAS GRIMM MUNCHEN
Theresienstrasse 56b
80333 Munich / Germany
Tuesday - Friday 11 am – 6 am
Saturday 11 am – 2 pm
www.andreasgrimmgallery.com
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