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Christian Nagel K�ln: Mirjam Thomann - 1 Sept 2008 to 4 Oct 2008 Current Exhibition |
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Mirjam Thomann
01.09.2008 - 04.10.2008 Galerie Christian Nagel K�ln |
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Corn Futures Some notes on a show by Mirjam Thomann at Galerie Christian Nagel, Cologne, in August 2008 by Marina Vishmidt As commodity prices soar, with a speculative boom correcting market losses incurred by the credit crash while driving a global food crisis that sees a BBC news article advising its readers to combat the isolation of poverty through the social activity of growing your own vegetables, food and futures are ineluctably linked on a semantic chain of hunger, finance and hot air. Mirjam Thomann, with allusive and ludic clarity, has let speculation run riot at the Galerie Nagel, twin-towning the fetishistic spaces of Brazilian folk ritual and the commercial gallery, popcorn machines and art markets, pop and minimalism, and the artist as affordable snack item. This is attempted by means of festive phalanxes of achieved potential (curtains made out of strings of popcorn) and sumptuously packaged waste (silver casts of kernels sold as limited editions). The phenomenon of fictitious capital laundered in art investments as the last safe port in troubled economic times hops one more delirious rung here with a shrapnel-sharp allegory that figures the art system as popcorn machine. While Georges Bataille focused on 'negative expenditure' as a means to upset the cost-benefit analysis of straitlaced Western economic formations, banking on uselessness and waste to exceed a society shaped in the image of the bottom line, here even the chastity of 'old maids' (the trade name for kernels that exit the popping process unchanged) is clad in obscene luxury, marking a lost encounter between the gratuitousness of 'general economy' and a world which can only say the spell that turns gratuitousness to scarcity. Potential is all very well, as long as it is the potential to be consumed � art dealer, futures trader and popcorn vendor have this to say to each other. Thomann additionally zeroes in on the equivocal legacy of appropriation for contemporary critical and feminist strategies by capturing the act of appropriation in vivo; the invitation card to her first solo exhibition shows the shadow of her hand as she rephotographs another, artist's invite to view 'New Work'. One more layer to the mise-en-abyme comes when a stack of these is displayed on a plinth with a mirrored surface, endlessly registering the visitor's hand as it 'appropriates' this panoply of thefts and gifts, along with everything around her, reflecting at once the inexhaustible difference in the many small repetitions and the fetishism of the gesture that screams 'context is content' from every beam of light that refracts over the Minimalist object. If the stakes of the efforts of the 1980s generation of image-purloiners were to deploy the pre-consumed against easy consumption, opening a gap where refusal and complicity could enter into new relations, there was also the gender dimension that appropriated imagery returned the act of objectification to the gaze of the object, the woman artist thwarting her own ability-to-be-consumed. Held in tandem with Thomann's inclination for the vanishing gesture that recomposes existing elements in a space, there emerges a possibility for an affect which measures its intensity by the critical distance it takes, takes, takes � and collapses. MIRJAM THOMANN Geb. / born 1978 in Wuppertal, lebt und arbeitet in Berlin / lives and works in Berlin. 2000-2006 Hochschule f�r bildende K�nste Hamburg. 1998-1999 Kingston University of London. EINZELAUSSTELLUNGEN / SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2008 "Mirjam Thomann", Galerie Christian Nagel, K�ln. "The Masking Piece", mit Carola Wagenplast, Pudelkollektion, Golden Pudel Club, Hamburg. "Galerie Christian Nagel, Cologne/Berlin, at Rental, New York, presents �Places and Names� by Mirjam Thomann und Jan Timme", Rental Gallery, New York. "The System Grows To Meet Requirements", Galerie Durstewitz-Sapre, Hamburg. 2007 "no projects were undertaken, dazwischen#2", mit Karolin Meunier, White Space, Z�rich. 2006 "shift (inbetween)", Diplomausstellung Hochschule f�r bildende Kunst , Hamburg. 2003 "Better than life (my postmoderism)", AvAv, Hamburg. GRUPPENAUSSTELLUNGEN / GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2008 "Soziale Diagramme. Planning Reconsidered", K�nstlerhaus Stuttgart, Stuttgart. 2007 "Gemischtes Doppel", Insert 1 who, Kunstverein in Hamburg, Hamburg. "Kunststudentinnen und Kunststudenten stellen aus", Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn. 2006 "Bewerber und Bewerberinnen f�r die Hamburger Arbeitsstipendien f�r bildende Kunst 2007", Kunsthaus Hamburg, Hamburg. "Landungsbr�cken" Atelierfrankfurt, Frankfurt/Main. 2005 "Akademie. Kunst lehren und lernen", (Modulator, Gemeinschaftsarbeit der Klasse Eran Schaerf), Kunstverein in Hamburg, Hamburg. "post-double-super-high-opening", Galerie der Hochschule f�r bildende Kunst, Hamburg. 2004 "Groupshow: NOT IN MY NAME", KX, Hamburg. PREISE & STIPENDIEN / AWARDS & SCHOLARSHIPS 2008 Stipendium der K�nstlerst�tte Schloss Bleckede. 2007 F�rderpreis f�r bildende Kunst der Bundesministerin f�r Bildung und Forschung. 2004 Stipendium der Karl-Heinz-Ditze-Stiftung f�r Mobilit�t im Ausland. TEXTE UND PUBLIKATIONEN VON MIRJAM THOMANN / TEXTS AND PUBLICATIONS BY MIRJAM THOMANN "No projects were undertaken", Reader zur gleichnamigen Ausstellung (herausgegeben mit Karolin Meunier). "We find what we seek. �ber eine Ausstellung von Sherrie Levine", in: Texte zur Kunst, Heft 67, September 2007. "The whole of life, life�s detail. Zu den Fotografien von Tom Sandberg", in: Bemagazin #14, September 2007. "Einnehmend von allen Seiten. �ber eine Ausstellung von Poul Gernes", in: Von/100 Nr.3, Juli 2007. "Warhol, Andy"; in: Texte zur Kunst, Heft 66, Juni 2007. "In den Vorr�umen des Optimismus. �ber die Videoarbeiten von Yael Bartana.", in: Kultur & Gespenster, Ausgabe 3, Winter 2007. "Du bist nicht allein. Ein Roundtablegespr�ch mit Stephan Geene, Jutta Koether, Markus M�ller, Bernadette Van-Huy und Antek walczak, moderiert von Mirjam Thomann", in: Texte zur Kunst, Heft 63, September 2006. "Meinetwegen kann alles hier in Flammen stehen. �ber eine Ausstellung von Wade Guyton", in: Texte zur Kunst, Heft 61, M�rz 2006. "Der rote Punkt am Objektiv. �ber eine Ausstellung von Christopher Williams", in: Texte zur Kunst, Heft 59, September 2005. "Wenn sonst nichts klappt: Wiederholung wiederholen in Kunst, Popkultur, Film, Alltag, Theorie und Praxis", Sabeth Buchmann, Alexander Mayer, Karolin Meunier, Stefan Moos, Erich Pick, Martina Rapedius, Thomas Rindfleisch, Mirjam Thomann, Sabin T�nschel (Hg.), Berlin 2005. "Illegal fun/ Under the sun. Zur desidentifikatorischen Praxis von Camp", in: Wenn sonst nichts klappt: Wiederholung wiederholen in Kunst, Popkultur, Film, Alltag, Theorie und Praxis, Berlin 2005 "Die Spuren des Autors. Ein Interview mit Isabelle Graw zu Anzeichen von Faszination und Kritik in der Appropriation Art", in: Wenn sonst nichts klappt: Wiederholung wiederholen in Kunst, Popkultur, Film, Alltag, Theorie und Praxis, Berlin 2005. "Anti-Exklusiv. Ein Atelierbesuch bei Bettina Allamoda", in: Texte zur Kunst, Heft 57, M�rz 2005. "Subject. Practice. Fear. Belvedere. Eine Publikation zur Ausstellung Group Show: NOT IN MY NAME", Hamburg 2004. "Grund zum Googeln. �ber eine Ausstellung von Natascha Sadr Haghighian", in: Texte zur Kunst, Heft 55, September 2004. "Klinik unter Palmen. Statements aus der Kunstakademie", in: Texte zur Kunst, Heft 53, M�rz 2004, (zusammen mit Karolin Meunier). "Cheap Champagne Issue", Tjorg Beer, Ina Bruchlos, Alex Heim, Dunja Karabaic, Lutz Kr�ger, Martin Luce, Frank L�sing, Dirk Meinzer, Karolin Meunier, Stephan M�rsch, Anna Reemts, Dennis Scholl, Kerstin Schr�der, Natalia Stachon, J�rg Stahlschmidt, Mette Thiessen, Mirjam Thomann, J�rgen von D�ckerhof (Hg.), Hamburg 2003. "Wir sind total okay. Selbstausk�nfte von Gelatin", in: Cheap Champagne Issue, Hamburg 2003, (zusammen mit Karolin Meunier). |
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