NACHTMARE

»NIGHTMARES«

In the pictures and sculptures by the three artists, the
concrete external world loses its fascination in comparison
with the world of the subject. The subject’s truth always
bears the character of fiction. It is a symbolic construction
out of heterogeneous elements in which evidence, quotes
and interpretations of the subject interfuse. In this way,
fiction is not solely a “subjective” or “relative” truth but first
and foremost an effective force.
The ambivalent effect caused by nightmares, visions, and
often horror promises a poetic potential between angst and
lust that has been firing art since the early days. On the
basis of the “Art History of Horror” one can establish that
this other traumatic world beyond borders is subject to an
order. Within art, this “Order of the Subconscious” is
marked by characteristics of style which are connected to
the term of the formless (Bois/Krauss). Here, this does not
mean negation of the form but rather the notion of its
dissolution, the process of exceeding or penetrating the
boundaries of the body.

The fact that Sebastian Gögel at times tattoos his
phantasmagorical, amorphous drawings and paintings on
human skin complies with a gesture of transgression – a
recurrent theme in his intermedia work. A restraint force
seems to constantly fight against a form of resistance,
which can disrupt in an explosive or oozing way through his
intensely opaque colours and strongly dripping or expanding
forms. Thus, figures of a surreal world in which angst,
anxiety and violence – the complete range of discomfort in
culture ¬– find an expression and shatter the subject’s
stability.

It is no accident that Keti Kapadnaze’s lateral, ornamental
way of painting is reminiscent of Hieronymus Bosch’s
depiction of hell in “Garden of Delights” where the world’s
spatial order gives way to permanent disorientation, a
flotation in space. Character-like picture elements adhered
to the surface of a genuinely artificial pictorial world – with
no obvious hierarchy and forfeiting their instructor – are
buzzing through translucent layers. The conflict lies in the
apparent closeness to the decor as grimaces are lurking
right behind elegance.

Emeli Theander’s painting concretizes on the border
between the beautiful appearance and the weirdness of
strange worlds. Her ghostly creatures in a dreamlike dark
scenery reminiscent of Goya’s Caprici or Füssli’s Nightmare
leave room for the fleeting and vague indulging in lust for
shivers. These creatures are often childlike and they are
trying to involve the viewers in their innocent diabolic game
and to abduct them to their carnival worlds.

Private View STUTTGART
Thursday June 9th 2011, 7 – 10pm

Exhibition Dates
Friday June 10th – Saturday July 30, 2011

Gallery Hours
Tu – Fr 10am – 6pm, Sa 11am – 4pm,
or by appointment