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Now I am working on a new body of work titled The World as an Orange. It consists of familiar objects, such as buckets, sneakers, coffee cups, submitted to the same treatment we impart to vegetables and fruits on a kitchen counter – slicing, peeling, halving, and chopping. – I like to make objects that, by being improbable, create new situations for what is possible. – Ana Linnemann

Walking into Ana Linnemann’s ’ The World as an Orange,’ is like encountering a painting made three-dimensional; navigating the fractured shapes and spaces of a Cubist still life. Or given the suggestion of a violent slicing of the picture plane, perhaps it is more akin to experiencing the dynamism of a Futurist interior. A stream of art historical references flood my mind – the designs of the Bauhaus, the bold, primary palette of Piet Mondrian (red, yellow, blue, black – though Linnemann introduces green.); the pulsing patterns of Op Art. The artist is addressing a formalist tradition in its issues of color, shape, strucrture and texture. Yet she is also playing a conceptual game – and the checkerboard floor is indeed evocative of a giant gaming board – one that combines both precision and chance. – ‘The World as an Orange’ finds both its subject and organizing principle (the rules of the game) from the everyday sphere, yet Linnemann transforms what is familiar into something foreign, even fantastic. The recognizable elements of the artist’s domestic tableaux are each sliced as she would cut an orange, or peeled how she might unwrap it in one exquisite, skilled motion. The awe such a feat inspires is present here as well.

The small rugs seem thrown into place, just as little girls toss orange peels over their shoulders hoping that the letters they resemble on landing will tell them the initials of their future loves. There is indeed magic in the mundane. – Extract from essay by Susan Cross.

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IMAGE DESCRIPTION – 1. – The World as an Orange, 2003. – Installation view, Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud, São Paulo, Brazil. 2. – The World as an Orange, 2003.kitchen stool, telephone, notebook, pen. 3. – The World as an Orange, 2002. pair of Coverse All Star sneakers, 2002. 4. – The World as an Orange, 2004. Installation view, Sculpture Center, New York. 5. – The World as an Orange 2004. Installation view, Sculpture Center, New York. door, wall, broom. 6. – The World as an Orange, 2003, wall clock.