Raphaela Vogel at Westfälischer Kunstverein

Artist: Raphaela Vogel

Exhibition title: She Shah

Curated by: Kristina Scepanski

Venue: Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster, Germany

Date: December 10, 2016 – February 12, 2017

Photography: Thorsten Arendt, all images copyright and courtesy of the artist, Westfälischer Kunstverein and BQ, Berlin

In her unique way, Raphaela Vogel (b. 1988, Nuremberg) knows how to splice individual, interpersonal conflicts with the intraindividual challenges of modern society. In her videos, installations and performances, this is frequently expressed in terms of the confrontation between two competing worlds, the patent contradictoriness of which is clearer to us today than ever before: corporeality and technology. To achieve this, she uses the latest digital technology and gadgets; however, rather than disguise this fact, she actively incorporates it and them into her work as protagonists. At the same time, she makes use of animal, natural and seemingly archaic materials that lend her installations a flavour of the relic. Raphaela Vogel combats the dominant male view of things, which not only continues to determine our everyday world, but also holds sway in art (history). She does this by torpedoing the classical subject/object relationship. Most of her videos are made using minicams attached to drones. This allows Vogel to film completely on her own and be simultaneously both viewer and the object of view. Control replaces the loss of control.

In her show at the Westfälischer Kunstverein, Raphaela Vogel intends to present two new “video sculptures” as she calls them, along with a number of other woks. Her exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue in 2017 to be published in conjunction with the Motorenhalle Dresden.

Raphaela Vogel, Hochbett, 2016, Video, 6:06 min, loft bed, curtains, braid, gravestone, monitor, 2 headphones, Mac Mini

Raphaela Vogel, Isolator, 2016, Video, 11:26 min, insulators, steel ropes, wooden box, pallet, steel plate, 4 speakers, Mac Mini

Raphaela Vogel, Dog, 2016, God, 2016, Oil stick and ballpoint pen on goat and elk leather; She Shah, 2016, Video, 2:18 min, shisha, tyvek, polyurethane, elastomer, wire, projector

Raphaela Vogel, God, 2016, Oil stick and ballpoint pen on goat and elk leather; She Shah, 2016, Video, 2:18 min, shisha, tyvek, polyurethane, elastomer, wire, projector