W. Rossen: Mit freundlichen Grüßen
20.04.21- 27.04.21
The paintings are grids, they are also letters. They are precise and abstract, reductive and fleshy at once. They are near points, far points and curves. Shreds of acrylic binder lie on them, coincidentally in their form and materiality. It feels as if they should be as they are: stick-ons, self-adhesive like barcode stickers on a package that appear again and again. The abstract writing of the letter paintings can also be read. Spots of color become readable; abstraction becomes a play with distance. Close to the canvas, the whole letter can no longer be recognized, but the small elements like the tear-off note at the edge of the e. Only a fragment, but a telephone number clearly legible from up close. The smaller canvas on the other side shows a barcode sticker. Seen from close however, sender and address are only scribbles. The painted letters are not decorative but have been reduced to the structure that underlies their appearance, they anticipate a certain capacity for abstraction: the dots in the grid must be connected as lines and finally thought of as letters. The title of the exhibition is Mit freundlichen Grüßen, an empty phrase that sticks to almost every formal correspondence without ever being questioned. A phrase as generic as a barcode. Both quickly become invisible and overread. They mean nothing and that means a lot.
The booklet is a collection of images and works made over a period of five years that captures what would otherwise be lost and lie around: the desk chair, the fishing lure, the pen, the barcode.
Text by Leonie Schmiese
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