Johannes Spehr "Notizen von der Peripherie eines Belagerungszustandes"

The Thomas Rehbein Gallery is pleased to present new drawings by Johannes Spehr in his eighth solo exhibition, which conjure a dystopian society through intensified scenarios, accompanied by a spatial installation. Additionally, the artist's new catalog, which also serves as the exhibition title, will be unveiled.

Among the recent drawings, a detailed series stands out, differing from the often intricately misleading 'storyboards' found in the growing collection of condensed fictions with tangible settings. No matter how one engages with the series, it begins and ends in the 'blackness' of self-sufficient, all-over pencil marks. In between, there is a fleeting glimpse of a perfect lineup of mutants (...).

Somehow, this society of soulless misfires lures us into a vibrating stillness reminiscent of scenes from films, whose connection to any decipherable narrative has been lost. From an objective standpoint, there is no relevant evidence for anything that could be understood as a clear or at least plausible social critique.

No, this imagery is far more insidious than many morally adorned offerings from the toolbox of ideologically driven know-it-alls. Whether in the space or in the drawing, it is primarily the 'empty spaces' that challenge the silence following the gust of wind. (...)

Figures that occupied the clearing of the forest in an absurd spectacle before the wind's arrival re-emerge from the shimmering darkness of the surfaces in the drawing and then vanish. In the empty or silent interspace, freedom could indeed still be limitless.

(Excerpts from a text by Annelie Pohlen, 2012)

The catalog "Notes from the Periphery of a State of Siege" by Johannes Spehr, published in 2014 by Bruno Verlag, will be available at the opening on February 26, from 6 to 9 PM. For further information and images, please contact the gallery.