Ralf Ziervogel: As If

AS IF

Ralf Ziervogel's (*1975) sensational motifs run across lengths of paper up to ten metres in size: without any preliminary drawing, he creates ink drawings that show palm-sized figures in extreme physical situations: they are tied up, intertwined and knotted. Delicate, complex drawings are primarily dedicated to human bodies that sink into monochrome or merge into ornamental weaves. In Ralf Ziervogel's work, human bodies become hybrid, feverish beings that undergo every conceivable metamorphosis of being, pushing the boundaries of physical existence. Since 2014, he has been working on a print cycle in which he uses a black gouache technique to shape fragmentary impressions on sheets up to five metres in size and create completely new dynamic bodies. Every movement, every pressing and blurring on the paper is accompanied by his own handwritten texts, which he stretches over the black prints like a large spider's web, thus creating a second level. His new works appear more abstract than the sensational works with which he caused a furore 10 years ago; they also seem to be moving towards a minimalist formal language, through which the artist formulates a pair of opposites that was not at the beginning of his work: Movement and stillness. Ralf Ziervogel, whose work has been shown to great acclaim at the Venice Biennale of Art and Architecture, the Kunsthalle Wien, the Museum of Modern Art New York and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth/Texas, the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, the Deste Foundation Athens, the maison rouge in Paris and the Pinakothek der Moderne Munich, is now being presented on three floors with over 200 works by the Deichtorhallen Hamburg in the Falckenberg Collection in Hamburg-Harburg. The book can be described as the most comprehensive presentation of the work of this brilliant draughtsman to date.

Exhibition:
Deichtorhallen Hamburg / Falckenberg Collection Hamburg-Harburg, 29/9/2018 - 27/1/2019
(extended until 17 March 2019)