VALERIE KRAUSE

A conical wood plinth is placed on plastered jute with two intersecting red threads that form a vertical axis to the ground where all lines converge towards a point outside the base area. A reversed L-shaped body-sized plaster and jute wall piece forms a shelf-like angle on the wall between surface and space. The two works further amplify the idea of unseen sculptural segments that lie beyond the tangible space they inhabit. A series of narrow cropped photographs taken from the window of a moving train going through the Polish landscape and printed on transparent foil are placed at regular intervals, seemingly mimicking the pace of a train and the transparency of a windowpane. Converted to halftone screen, their tenuous presence occurs through the repetition of black dots and transparent space only. A galvanised steel sheet directly arranged on the floor with a circular cutout unfolding in opposite directions defines a flat area while creating a three dimensional shape.

Although this principle of positive/negative, which is so familiar to both sculpture and photography could seem like a guiding principle, Valerie Kraus’s works also tend to develop out of one another in an organic manner. Throughout the exhibition, this casual link is at once made obvious and complex, as is the case with the two small-scale ceramic works hanging on the wall. Their kinship is impossible to ignore yet there remains a refined sense of uncertainty.