Paul Eachus 'Resurfacing in the face of doubt', 2006 / © Paul Eachus, courtesy BodhiBerlin
Tom Felber for ceative face Magazine
Sculpture has become an important asset to the contemporary realm of production. From its posthumous placement in the early sixties and seventies during the era of pop art and minimalism, the craft of sculpting has undergone a rich metamorphosis in the invaluable way that its material resources have expanded to embrace urbanity. Following this statement BodhiBerlin presents Urban Spiel. A Study Of Sculpture And Material with works by the artists Paul Eachus, Sumedh Rajendran and Rob Voerman from September 6 until October 18, 2008.
Shaheen Merali, director of BodhiBerlin and curator of Urban Spiel. A Study Of Sculpture And Material says about the exhibition: "The three artists in Urban Spiel live in two different cities in Europe and in Asia. Paul Eachus lives and works in London; his work appropriates society's excesses, its ‘overwhelmingness' in terms of consumer production and information overload, utilising found and discarded materials, as well as those of the DIY superstore. He explores the fragility of contemporary systems and their potential for collapse, building complex facades which become large scale photographs and display pieces. These works are eclectically assembled, often contradictory in their use of styles, genres and motifs, and driven by a logic of sense rather than one of rationality.
Similarly Rob Voerman, living and working in Arnhem, makes subtle habitable environments from previously found wood and metal, as well as displaced shelves and doors. His cabinets, like body suits, are reminiscent of armour and drawn from our lackadaisical disdain for tasteful, functional design. His latest works can be read as a powerful statement about the contemporary entanglement between architecture and desire. They remind us of the architecture of utopian hippie communities, consisting of an intertwined mixture of vitality and decay. Highly decorated structures with an aura of romanticism reveal the grim qualities of terror and manifest the inter-connectedness of destruction and beauty. The transformation of violent material wreckage into an architectural structure in fully aesthetic form leads to religious associations and seemingly translucent cathedrals.
Sumedh Rajendran lives and works in Delhi. His sculptural renderings made from mosaic tiles, aluminium board, enamel advertisement sheets, corrugated sheets, paper, rusted iron and leather, amongst other materials, have earned him a great international reputation over the past few years. In his works, he reveals a new world of sculptural aesthetics and forms, meditating regularly on capitalism, urban signs attached to monuments, white-collar workers, and public utilities. Rajendran often turns familiar public signs into complex sculptural, 3-dimensional collages that combine recently found objects with that which is previously made. In a similar way to Voerman, the artist creates images of shattered utopia, witnessing and interpreting the ecologic/urban paradoxes of the contemporary. In the context of urban Indian life, Rajendran contrasts the organic with the artificial and refers to the incompatibility of industry and landscape. His mode of juxtaposing the contradictions of everyday life elucidates the unseen aestheticism of material transformation.
In compiling and exhibiting the works of these three artists to create Urban Spiel, the sophisticated language of metropolitan spaces becomes accessible. Through the use of diverse media, the artists and their sculptures alert the public to the incredible magnitude of everyday "stuff" forgotten or discarded by a growing, international population focused only on consumption. Urban Spiel addresses the described conditions and, through its density of material, makes us aware of the vast archives of taste and waste which so conveniently induce and seduce our daily living."
