Peter Sauerer "Elesampe"
Speed often constrains our perception today. In his meticulously carved wooden sculptures, Peter Sauerer recreates the world on a significantly reduced scale, bringing to light those things that capture his attention and, ideally, enrich our own view of the world. Through a variety of miniaturized wooden works, Sauerer captures current events, everyday scenes, familiar objects, or memories. His fifth solo exhibition at the Thomas Rehbein Gallery offers plenty to discover once again.
Whether it’s recreating historical events, as seen in his series of wooden model cars populated with tiny figures from politics and society, such as the open presidential limousine with US President John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie during their drive through downtown Dallas in November 1963, just before the devastating assassination. Or a baroque Madonna, or replicas of firearms like the German police pistol Walther PPK, or a street intersection in Los Angeles viewed from a Google Earth perspective, all compressed into the surface of a small wooden box. Peter Sauerer’s works tell pointed stories about world events, always infused with a good dose of humor.
Recently, Sauerer captured the universe in a nutshell, condensing events from recent history, such as the fatal Formula 1 accident involving Niki Lauda, onto the surface of a halved walnut shell, sculpting the portrait head of Gaius Julius Caesar—not carved in stone, but crafted in wood—or creating a miniature version of the massive Matterhorn. With wooden gold teeth strung on a cord, he addressed the theme of transience.
His latest works are equipped with so-called hyperlinks and QR codes. Transferred onto wooden plaques and mounted in Sauerer’s typical style with cords onto elongated or rectangular wooden boxes, these boxes are adorned with colorful patterns or designed with windows and cornices into towers. They feature a nostalgic moon illustration reminiscent of “A Trip to the Moon” by Georges Méliès, one of the first science fiction films from 1902, contain a constellation, or present miniature figures on small pedestals, such as a skeleton or Sauerer’s well-known Shunga figures.
These works are detailed and carefully crafted, standing autonomously, provoking irritation or eliciting smiles from viewers.
By scanning the QR code with a smartphone app or entering the link online, short films created by the artist himself open up, corresponding to each work. Often accompanied by music, they showcase footage of sacred fresco paintings or the legendary Dolomites massif Laurin, named after the eponymous dwarf king who is said to have owned a rose garden high on the mountain. Another short film features a hand puppet with unmistakable facial features of the artist during an approach to an airport. Sometimes, the wooden works reference the details in the short films, while at other times, the object and the film seem incompatible. The short films provide apparent clues for interpretation, yet ultimately, they are just as unilluminating as the wooden works. In the end, it is left to the viewer to assign meaning to the works.
(Miriam Walgate, 2013)