BankMalbekRau: Brutal Fruit
October 29th - December 18th 2004
Opening October 29th from 17-20
Kirkhoff is happy to present BankMalbekRau’s first solo exhibition
at the gallery. The artist group consists of Lone Bank, Christina
Malbek and Tanja Rau who have worked together since 1999. On show are
black MDF sculptures, reliefs and collages.
The point of departure is Brutalist architecture from the 1960s and
1970s. Buildings and institutions for the masses were built in a style
descending from Le Corbusier and his visions of an architecture that
could contain all aspects of living, a community in itself. A
style which has an honesty in its expression, an architecture that
unveils its construction and function. An architecture without
mysticism for a world without mysticism. Brutalism has later been
accused of being alienating and of creating ghettos. First and foremost
it was rational, equivalent to modern society’s other organizations and
functions.
BankMalbekRau present new abstract sculptures and reliefs of wood that
reflect the ’system’ and the dominating structures. But life is of
course far from this demystifying and brutal expression. On the
contrary, it is characterized by the individual’s irrational feelings,
visions and dreams. BankMalbekRau let reliefs and collages of e.g.
leather and thread grow out of the openings and the cracks of the
structures as sensuous, obscure, romantic, perishable and pleasurable
elements.
BankMalbekRau work in a field between painting and sculpture. The group
often uses ’modest’ materials, e.g. print, paper, cardboard, MDF, for
their meticulous and visually beautiful objects, banners, reliefs and
collages. Investigating representational issues, they focus on
iconography and the staging of art. The group is interested in the
historical modes of representations, especially the Baroque and the
cabinets of wonder from the Renaissance. Formally, their works are
often displayed according to these modes in non-hierarchal patterns of
mental associations or likenesses. The pieces play optical tricks and
often challenge the spectator’s perceptual capabilities by means of
their altered perspective and graphical innovation. BankMalbekRau play
with the wonders of the world by transforming the material into
socio-cultural emblems of extravaganza and beauty.
This year the artists have exhibited at Trapholt Museum (Denmark),
Zacheta National Gallery (Warszawa), Paintbox Extensions (solo,
Copenhagen) and at the sculpture quadrianial ’European Space’ (Riga).
BankMalbekRau and Kirkhoff are grateful for the support from The
Committee for Visual Arts, Krydsfinér-handelen, Hans Just A/S and Dyrup.
