09 Feb 2011

Takahiro Iwasaki / Nina Yuen / Kirsten Reibold at NKV Kunstverein Wiesbaden

TAKAHIRO IWASAKI / NONLOCALITY
NONLOCALITY is Takahiro Iwasaki's (*1975, Hiroshima) first solo show in Europe. With mundane materials such as towels, paper, threads and books he creates detailed urban and nature like landscapes, fragile and transcending the border between art and life. Originally initiated by a low budget, this new method of working let Takahiro Iwasaki develop an extended consciousness for authenticity. In his series he arranges socks, clothes, bath towels and threat, and made fragile constructions of it. The raw materials used in its work remain recognizable and support simultaneously recollections on everyday life. His show in Wiesbaden includes beneath new works also the hanging object Reflection Modell (Perfect Bliss), the Byōdō-in temple en miniature made from Japanese cypress wood, that refers to Iwasaki's early works.

NINA YUEN / WHITE BLINDESS
Nina Yuen (*1981, Hawaii) works in the areas of video and installation, whereby often both means of expression refer to each other and are also combined. In her short films she appears as an actress, narrates the events and explores the boundaries of the performance. The exhibition WHITE BLINDNESS is Nina Yuen's first institutional solo show in Germany and shows five of her video-works: The videos Clean (2006) and David (2010) deal with domestic habits and the daily body care, activities that usually take place in the morning and are normally a little fastidious and performed without introspection. The morning routine, however, becomes more elaborate as Yuen carries out all actions with newly created utensils and offers alternatives to the conventional methods. In the video Rimbaud (2007) and Juanita (2010) Yuen constitutes two different kinds of artistic inspiration: first the inspiration that rationally and specifically starts processes under the artist's control, and secondly the inspiration from the outside as divine illumination for which every artist is waiting. In the video Don (2006) Yuen presents three figures from her own biography: herself, her mother Alison and her mother's ex-husband Don.

NKVextra KIRSTEN REIBOLD / ATTEMPT OF A VERTICAL
The NKV presents Kirsten Reibolds video work ATTEMPT OF A VERTICAL: Three monitors are setup as in a conference. Abstracted by increased contrast a tie moves vertically through two of the screens. On the third screen a text scrolls from bottom to top. In it utopia and science intermingle in relation to a journey to the moon—with or without an elevator. The melody of a song, composed by Bertolt Brecht and Hans Eisler, from the collection of cradle songs for mothers of the working class: 'My son, what ever may become of you' is irregularly played back into the scenery. The three monitors, the video pictures and the music are rhythmically arranged with each other, so that the individual parts can interact. In this work the verticality is unveiled as a principle of power. Kirsten Reibolds studies Fine Arts at the Hochschule für Bildende Kunst ‒ Städelschule in Frankfurt/Main.

Curated by Elke Gruhn and Sara Stehr

Supported by:
Hessische Kulturstiftung
The Japan Foundation / Japanisches Kulturinstitut
150 Jahre Deutschland-Japan
Consulate General of the United States, Frankfurt/Main

The NKV Wiesbaden is supported by Kulturamt Wiesbaden