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Antoinette Adams / Kayla Kee / Julia Werhahn und Luisa Puschendorf

Ausstellungseröffnung 6.2.2014
um 20 Uhr

Text von Araceli Mangione

(Open to misinterpreta.on)
Entering an art gallery or museum, it is immediately understood that the space inside occupies something significant, signaled by the presence of a security guard, whose job is to protect these works. This automa.cally raises one’s awareness of the value behind the art on display, leaving a sort of formal or ins.tu.onal impression on the visitor. The job itself can be painstakingly tedious and may require more s.mula.on then simply performing the duty of safekeeping art, designated by “suit, badge, and chair.”
Julia Werhahn (b. 1988 in Hanover, Germany) and Luisa Puschendorf (b. 1989 in Kassel, Germany) have worked as an ar.st duo since 2011. In their work, “The Guard,” they playfully unmask the anonymity of a security guard’s role within the art world by supplying chosen equipment visibly placed within the exhibi.on room. It is up to the guard to decide to use or not to use these utensils, just as he or she may decide whether to fulfilL or not fulfilL a warden’s job. What could he/she be doing during the absence of the visitor? Werhahn and Puschendorf’s installa.on doesn’t just bring aWen.on to the actual presence of the guard inside an exhibi.on, but seeks out further informa.on, such as the behavIour, expecta.ons, and du.es of a warden, and rela.onship between space, guard and visitors.
Open to misinterpreta/on consists of works by both German and American ar.sts, and can be read individually or in collabora.on with one another. The works of Kayla Kee (b. 1990 in San Diego, USA) and AntoineWe Adams (b. in Orange County, USA) yield a similar visual atmosphere but are, however, very different from one another. Unlike Werhahn and Puschendorf’s installa.on, which conceptually reflects on the inner-workings of the art ins.tu.on, Kee and Adams reassure the presence of a tradi.onal exhibi.on by selec.ng a classical layout for the presenta.on of their work. Kee’s snapshots are framed and aligned horizontally at a level that is assumed to correspond with the eye. Furthermore, both Kee’s analogue photography and Adams’s eloquent floa.ng feathers have been constructed under much aWen.on to detail and awareness of material, process and layout. The bareness of black and white allows the viewer to recognize the finer detailed found in Kee’s photography and Adams‘ feathers.