Stephen Shore's “Retrospective”
The Exhibition “Retrospective” by Stephan Shore Presents the Unique Work of a World Famous Artist
April 27th, 2016In the Amerika-Haus Berlin, where C/O Berlin gallery is located, Berliners can experience a remarkable exhibition of one of the most significant photographers.
The aim of this show is to examine whether and how meaning could be expressed without recourse to metaphysical explanatory models. The exhibition is divided into four parts in which the same motifs are viewed from different thematic perspectives. On the ground floor, the subject matter is introduced in order to demonstrate that surfaces appear charming because they can never be completely experienced visually. Here the materials become visible only when the light reflects on its surface. In the exhibition hall, the first chapter, Beneath the Firmament, takes as its starting point a literary image from D.H. Lawrence, which describes the universe as a man-made shield that protects humanity from the chaos.
All the artworks presented in this room address explicitly the shield and are dedicated to the physical and material reality of the universe. The third part is the Chapter World as Surface and explores several concepts of relationship to the world. The last chapter, Models of Subjectification probes forms of encountering oneself and others not based on a fix identity. The works in this chapter perceive the social norm as a surface from which an individual may more successfully gain opportunities for action through appropriation and varying repetition than through distinction.
The exhibition is curated by the Chief curator of the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Ellen Blumenstein and will be accompanied by a series of events and a program of performances during the Gallery Weekend Berlin, devised by the British curator Catherine Wood. The project of this event is born from joint researches by the two curators.
References:
Adam Slezak, Berlin Global