Ruettimann Contemporary is pleased to present Pushing Ground. The group show takes place at the soon-to-be renovated patrickson.studio, formerly known as King Kong, a vintage store at Weststrasse in Zurich Wiedikon. The exhibition includes three established Swiss artists and two international newcomers. Simon Ledergerber, Alexander Bühler, and Thilo Hoffmann are joined by Aoife Dunne, a young post-internet artist from Dublin, and Hannah Parr from Bournemouth, UK. Aoife Dunne’s installations have already been shown on a broad international scale. Hannah Parr lived and worked in the Dominican Republic before moving to Switzerland in 2018 and has since gained steadily more recognition for her humorous and critical oeuvre. Simon Ledergerber’s on-site installation Menschenwerk is the central part of the show.
The in-situ installation Simon Ledergerber (*1977 in Seelisberg, Canton of Uri, Switzerland) created in collaboration with Ruettimann Contemporary refers to the artist’s immediate surroundings: a soon-to-be abandoned shop. The work with the emblematic title Menschenwerk gives the space a highly sculptural dimension. This is due to Ledergerber having moved the parquet floor as one piece in a seemingly simple yet very complex technical manoeuvre to the opposite wall.The artist moved the wooden parquet without any technical equipment and crafted, in-situ, a fragile yet solid support structure. Like a mole he worked his way to the rear underneath the floor, ever conscious of the parquet’s heavy weight above him. On several levels, Menschenwerk refers to human perception and questions allegedly taken for granted facts. Although Ledergerber built an exact model of his undertaking prior in his studio, he repeatedly reached his limits when executing the work on site. He therefore experienced with his own body the discrepancy between a perfect plan and the deceitful reality.
The work raises the question how the impossible is made possible. Throughout construction Ledergerber was continuously forced to adapt and reorient with regards to the various challenging issues that arose. In the end, despite many obstacles, he literally pushed forward his project. Hence, a major part of Menschenwerk deals with new insights the artist gained from this physical feat.
To the outside viewer, the exhausting work behind the seemingly playful gesture Menschenwerk emanates is rather elusive. The inherent philosophical component of the work gradually develops by engaging with it more deeply: The frailty of an existing condition, the constant reorientation when things do not go according to plan, ground pulled from under one’s feet, or the invitation to view familiar surroundings from a different vantage point. On the geological-physical level, the installation evokes the shifting of tectonic plates or refers to the inertia of matter. During this tedious installation process Ledergerber himself underwent a remarkable transformation which drove him both as a person and as an artist.
Ledergerber completes the room installation with a series of new large-format canvases that share a distinctive coloration due to materials he applies such as iron dust, wood chips, or soil. The artist uses acid and oxidation to give the paintings a rich patina that radiate a deep tranquility and invite the viewer to ponder. Ledergerber thus refers to the natural materials present in the earth's crust, such as iron, which often determine the tonality of the landscapes of our planet. This new series expresses to a large extent the artist’s perception of artistic work. At the same time, they act as a snapshot of the continuous processes our surroundings are naturally prone to and which leave their mark in our visual space.
As an introduction to Aoife Dunne’s (*1995 in Dublin, Ireland) visual reality Ruettimann Contemporary shows two works from the series KINETIC COMPULSIONS, exclusively produced for the current show. The digitally created images reflect the artist’s mental state after several months spent in lockdown due to Covid restrictions. Feelings of overwhelming, chaos, hyperactivity, and surreal imagery characterize the works. They comprise up to 450 digital layers – a technique Dunne falls back on since the beginning of her practice. The decimation of human contact due to the state-imposed lockdown led the artist to put more emphasis on the self. Simultaneously, this state was accompanied by an alienation to the outside world and thus from the anthropomorphic figure per se. For this reason, KINETIC COMPULSIONS barely contains human figures. The works radiate in Aoife Dunne’s characteristic color spectrum and exhibit a remarkable density of highly complex sensations.
The main body of works by Alexander Bühler (*1977 in Zurich) shown at Ruettimann Contemporary focuses on the lockdown which reigned in Mexico City in the Spring of 2020. Following the strictly imposed curfew, Alexander Bühler escaped his studio to work in rural San José Villa de Allende in the greater Mexico City area. The series consists of paintings and works with mixed media and were created under most modest conditions. It is an amalgamation of Bühler’s previous work and the wealth of multicultural experiences he collected over the years living abroad. At the same time, they are an expression of a climate which was subject to strict conditions. Similar to Aoife Dunne, Alexander Bühler experienced an unexpected confrontation with himself due to external factors. He incorporated this introspection into his creative output. In Zurich, where he lives temporarily, Bühler pursued the technique he had developed in Mexico. Unlike their predecessors these new works also contain figurative elements, found objects, and hand painted dotted areas which remotely evoke pointillism in French modern painting.
Ruettimann Contemporary also features a large painting, entitled Elements, which was part of the aforementioned installation Billboard Nostalgia at Haus Konstruktiv (Zurich). Bühler’s deep interest in architecture was a major source of inspiration for the monumental work. The artist applied color fields in acrylic on plywood and separated them by tearing off tape strips he had previously fixed – a technique well known from the American Expressionist Barnett Newmann among others. The work consisting of a multitude of such panels is a reference to the urban landscape of Mexico City observed from a bird’s eye view. A series of small-scale sketches formed the basis for Billboard Nostalgia. With the present work Elements Bühler not only refers to architecture but also to the four elements earth, water, air, and fire symbolized by a golden hue. The pronounced regularity and empty caesuras give the work a spatial quality with a meditative aura.
Hannah Parr (*1984 in Bournemouth, UK) rewrites the narrative of objects identified with a specific function, thereby harvesting the latent potential of commonplace objects by repurposing them as tools for critical analysis. The messages conveyed in Parr's humorous and ironic manner usually have a double edge. The titles of works allude to dichotomies that illuminate cutting messages and comment upon condemning given normalities. The embedded irony strengthens the peculiar presence and harmony her works emanate. They evoke ever-present artistic movements such as Fluxus and Surrealism and allow for a variety of interpretations.
The social disparities Parr experienced up close in the Dominican Republic had a considerable impact on Parr’s creative process and reinforced her humanitarian beliefs. Since 2017 she has been volunteering on the Island of Chios, supporting people based in Vial, one of the largest migrant camps in the Aegean region. On these numerous trips Parr salvaged leftover rubber boat materials or rubber tubes used as substitute buoyancy aids from the coastline. Some of the found materials dated from well before the flux of migrants arrived from Syria, Iraq, or Afghanistan. Subsequently, she presents the black or deep blue plasticized fabrics as paintings by reframing and thus decontextualizing the frayed material. By doing so, Parr brings up the inherent human experience of migration which is intertwined with her personal story. She is the daughter of a Chinese mother who migrated from mainland China to Hong Kong and then to the UK. The scarred material of the diptych Picture the Sea powerfully reflects both resilience and vulnerability, struggle and beauty.
Thilo Hoffmann’s new work series in the current show bears the title How do you map the world?. Alluding to the circumstance that we need world maps to navigate and to orient ourselves. Thilo Hoffmann’s maps, however, cause the exact opposite: they confuse the viewer on purpose and on different levels.
The artist used a variety of aerial photos and satellite images of the earth and had each of them fractured into 200 puzzle pieces. Additionally, every photograph has the same puzzle grid which makes the puzzle pieces interchangeable throughout the different aerial and satellite views.
Looking at the maps, it appears not apparent at first glance that Hoffmann has conceived a completely new world which often seems to be upside-down. The alternative universe can only be accessed by taking a closer look. Thereby, one discovers on the one hand that the Louvre emerges in Central Park. On the other hand, one notices that the geography of Panama has been swapped with Israel. Islands seemingly disappear on one side of the planet and reappear elsewhere.
Viewing Hours:
Thursday and Friday from 1.30 - 6.30 pm, Saturday from 12 - 5 pm, and by appointment