Birgit Werres: samples for pieces – maybe

Kienbaum Artists’ Books 2019

Kienbaum Artists’ Books 2019 Edition
edited by Jochen and Laura Kienbaum
96 p with 93 full page coloured illustrations
320 x 230 mm, clothbound with two-coloured embossings

ISBN 978-3-86442-274-4
 

39,80 €

The enigmatic world of things by Birgit Werres

Industrially prefabricated objects dominate works by Birgit Werres (* 1962), yet they enter into heterogeneous combinations with additional elements made by the artist. Birgit Werres finds her materials in warehouses and at industrial production sites where she is a permanent visitor. And this is where she encounters the things that arouse her aesthetic interest. Her perception has been fine-tuned for many years; she had initially studied under Tony Cragg, before she graduated from Irmin Kamp’s class. Her rededication of profane figurativeness is carried out in sequences, stratifications or composite materials. In such works, the artist continues to expand on formal characteristics such as volume, texture and structure. The striking intrinsic color of the materials tends be of great significance. In contrast to the monumental corporeality of the objects, it additionally obscures the origin, function and properties of the material. Her unconventional sculptures and installations are quite often mentioned in reference to works by Robert Smithson, Barry Le Va, Richard Artschwager and Richard Serra. She did though rather wisely call the volume of Kienbaum Artists’ Books »samples for pieces – maybe«, where she lines up found objects, each as beautiful as the other, that are either squashed, pressed or just a little crushed – they could, quite possibly, turn into something!