Artists: Nadja Abt, Maximiliane Baumgartner, Stefan Burger, Julia Dubsky, Tobias Hohn, Stanton Taylor, Sarah Lehnerer, Inka Meißner, Robert Müller, Philipp Simon, Alexandra Tretter, Anouk Tschanz
Exhibition title: Constellations in a Bubble
Organized with: Philipp Schwalb
Venue: KIRCHGASSE, Steckborn, Switzerland
Date: November 13, 2021 – January 9, 2022
Photography: images copyright and courtesy of the artists and KIRCHGASSE, Steckborn
A constellation: a coexistence of stars, the position of a planet in relation to the sun and earth, a real or an apparent grouping of fixed stars, which – from a distance – constitutes an abstraction, narra-tion, prognosis or image. Out of the relationships between the constellations evolve constellations of constellations or excerpts from the cosmic context on the surface of the nocturnal sky. Depending on the time, place and situation surrounding their conception, the resulting images vary in contour and se-quence. Thus, a mere moment later, the same points could be linked to create another figure and woven into another story.
Connecting lines are drawn and intermediate areas between relationships become evident. Luminous color constellations transpose the viewer onto a psychedelic cloud near the stars.
Interpersonal, political and economic constellations are reflected in a sober diagram or captured in a pro-liferating visibility of social networks. Family, friend and character constellations appear on seismographs of soulfiction, in the dramas of psychologically memorized crime scenes or on gameboards of educa-tional prophecies. An image constellation opens the door to an echo chamber of relational simultaneity for individual images, in order that these may merge into a singular image at the same moment. Snipped from a of a context, it suggests a variety of perspectives and points of view, while frequently offering situ-ation-specific orientation aids and simultaneously demonstrating their methodology and construction.
An exhibition of constellations projects a vibrating resonance chamber next to, around or above singular constellations. Like a zodiac, they encompass a panorama that opens outwards. The positions presented in Kirchgasse arrange themselves in this reverberation space. They flourish in it and enter temporary cor-respondences, structures and relationships. A small bubble flies and shimmers in the organized network. A brief manifestation rises from a common liquid substance and hovers dormant as an unseen sphere of activations situated between egomania and the dissolution of the collective. The artists of these constel-lations explicitly and experimentally explore the question of what a constellation can be. The unexpected constellation of a shattered transparency (Inka Meißner) communicates with the burgeoning constella-tion of an elliptical blossom (Alexandra Tretter) with an coined constellation of a historical portrait (Robert Müller) with an antihierarchical constellation (Maximiliane Baumgartner) with a deconstellation of filigree coverings (Stefan Burger) with the flickering constellation of an enigmatic re(ar)view (Julia Dubsky) with a woven constellation of an autofictional zero (Sarah Lehnerer) with a recombining constellation of archival leaves (Anouk Tschanz) with a psychedelic constellation of a semi-documentary travelogue (Nadja Abt) with the stratified constellation of the illusion of complexity (Philipp Simon) with the contrastive constella-tion of situational-visual questioning (Tobias Hohn & Stanton Taylor).
-Text: Philipp Schwalb
Constellations in a Bubble, Installation View, 2021 / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Constellations in a Bubble, Installation View, 2021 / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Alexandra Tretter, How Do You Like Your Eggs?, 2021, Acrylic on Canvas / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist, 14a and Kirchgasse Gallery
Constellations in a Bubble, Installation View, 2021 / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Alexandra Tretter, Elliptical I, 2021, Transfer Paper on Sweatshirt, Edition of 10 / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Constellations in a Bubble, Installation View, 2021 / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Constellations in a Bubble, Installation View, 2021 / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Robert Müller, Untitled (de Sade, van Loo, Rousset), 2021, Silverpoint, Gesso, Gouache on Paper / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Robert Müller, 2021, Laser Print, Edition of 10 / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Constellations in a Bubble, Installation View, 2021 / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Constellations in a Bubble, Installation View, 2021 / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Anouk Tschanz, Blatt, 2020 | Blatt, 2019 | Blatt, 2019 | Blatt, 2021, Silver Gelatine Print on Baryta Paper, Edition of 3 + AP / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Constellations in a Bubble, Installation View, 2021 / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Julia Dubsky, Magritte Morellet, 2021, Oil on Canvas / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist, Amanda Wilkinson and Kirchgasse Gallery
Julia Dubsky, Actors Athletic, 2021, Videoloop / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Constellations in a Bubble, Installation View, 2021 / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Nadja Abt, From the Archive Irma/Jäcki, 2019, Digital and Silkscreen Print / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Constellations in a Bubble, Installation View, 2021 / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Sarah Lehnerer, Spaceship, 2021, Ceramics / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Sarah Lehnerer, Spaceship, 2021, Ceramics / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Sarah Lehnerer, Der Atlas ist ein Stoff, 2021, Digital Print, Edition of 20 + AP / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Constellations in a Bubble, Installation View, 2021 / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Tobias Hohn & Stanton Taylor, Babies & Animals, 2021, Inkjet Print, PVC, Alumimium, Candles / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Constellations in a Bubble, Installation View, 2021 / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Philipp Simon, Ecke 5, 2021, Veneer and Wood / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Philipp Simon, Board G, 2021, Paper, Veneer and Foil on Wood / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Philipp Simon, Board D, 2021, Paper, Veneer and Foil on Wood / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Philipp Simon, Board E, 2021, Paper, Veneer and Foil on Wood / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Constellations in a Bubble, Installation View, 2021 / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Maximiliane Baumgartner, Pinsel Portrait – Gusto oder zwischen roten Städten VII, 2018, Enamel on Alu Dibond / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Stefan Burger, Sankt Galler Schwund, 2021, Painted Metal Strips, Sock, Edition 2 of 10 / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Inka Meißner, Ohne Titel, 2021, Laser Print, Edition of 3 + 2 AP / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Constellations in a Bubble, Installation View, 2021 / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Tobias Hohn & Stanton Taylor, Artists & Animals (Constellations in a Bubble, 2021, Laser Print, Edition of 100 + 25 AP / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Constellations in a Bubble, Installation View, 2021 / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Constellations in a Bubble, Installation View, 2021 / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery
Inka Meißner, Ohne Titel, 2021, Laser Print on Alu Dibond / Photo: CE / Courtesy: the Artist and Kirchgasse Gallery