KATINKA BOCK

Her work is deeply rooted within an exploration of the physical properties of the materials she works with. Materiality and its diversity can be seen as a compagnon de route, motifs that co-direct her work in a straightforward manner and their fundamental characters. Substances become language articulating meaning at once directly and ambiguously, the interlocutor to fill in gaps to grasp a whole.

In this exhibition, a multitude of materials are agents that engage in dialogue, creating a cohesive gestalt that reflects the artist’s underlying concepts and principles. Indeed, an overarching element in the presentation is that of the physical, the humane.

A striking presence in the exhibition are the bronze sculptures Shelter (complex), Shelter (humble) and Double agent. Idiosyncratic hooks from which these works are suspended bring the physicality of these forms to the foreground, fleshy elements visible from everywhere in the space. Ceramic has morphed to bronze, elements of its former state’s texture trace of this change.

The installation Assemblée Anonyme manifests itself as a kind of counterpoint to these hanging bronzes. Soft, flowing, wooden forms are cast in bronze with an oxide green patina. Une Assemblée ‘an assembly’, is a group of people gathered in the same place for a common purpose and, like all social constellations, they interact both with each other and with their context. From this notion, we can perceive the exhibition from any part of the space; there is no true start, no beginning, no end. Be it enigmatic bronze and ceramic forms suspended from the ceiling or scattered on the ground, these are apparent prostheses or parts of a construction kit, minimal and difficult to fathom, the gallery space as terrain.

The group of wall works entitled Kompass are photograms on stretched textile. Each of the four has been realised in the same location, though oriented respectively North, South, East and West; their placement in the gallery consciously shadows this.

The principle of insolation refers to the total amount of solar radiation received by a specific surface area over a given period. This concept is of importance in meteorology, a notion of apparition or appearance; it is of course primordial in photography and film. A notion already present in the artist’s oeuvre is evoked with the German term Der Sonnenstich, ‘sunstroke’, ‘coup de soleil’; these terms all imply a moment of direct contact with the sun, both hinting towards a sense of anxiety and confusion, whilst also literally being the conduit of the image itself. Each work incorporates a relief, whether in ceramic or bronze, augmenting the already-implied deep visual field with tangible physicality.

Katinka Bock shows a new photo series of electricity poles in an anonymous, rural context, reflecting the lines of arbitrage and desire within our society. The aesthetic nature of these increasingly rare constructions are portrayed in an almost cinematic way. Finally, the physical edges of the exhibition are marked by linear ceramic and aluminium elements. Sculptures merge with the wall, suggests a new and ambiguous alphabet.

An Assemblée Anonyme of material, terrain, language, and light. Physicality articulates itself in the ephemeral qualities of luminosity and space. The tangible and the conceptual morph seamlessly into each other.

Recent solo exhibitions include: Der Sonnenstich, Fondation Pernod Ricard, Paris (2023); PALOMAR, Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris (2019); One to Eight, 303 Gallery, New York (2022); Some and Any, Fleeting, Cahn Kunstraum, Basel (2022); Common People, La Loge, Brussels (2022); Rauschen, Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover (2020); Fermata, Galerie Greta Meert, Brussels (2020); Monotonie, Meyer Riegger, Karlsruhe (2020); T-Toxic, Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris (2019); Landumland, Prix Marcel Duchamp, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2019); Sonar, Tomorrow’s sculpture, Kunstmuseum Winterthur (2018); ...

Her work is included in major public collections, including: Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Kunstmuseum Lucerne; Kunstmuseum St Gallen; Mudam, Luxembourg; Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Chicago; Kunstmuseum Bonn; Kunstmuseum Stuttgart; ...