29 Nov 2007 - 12 Jan 2008
For her second solo show at Sadie Coles HQ, Paloma Varga Weisz presents a distinctive body of new work comprising a series of her watercolour drawings and a group of mainly wooden sculptures. Given simple, often one word titles, the drawings portray abstract narrative characters such as Geknickter Mann (Broken Man), Groβer Hut (Big Hat), and Midget Pedro. Without contextual surroundings, the figures are concentrated and though the viewer may not be able to place them exactly, they are irrefutably evocative of our cultural history, be it mythical, religious or comic.An integral part of her oeuvre, the new drawings mark a departure for the artist, employing a new cast of characters, much more grounded in the real world rather than fantasy. Humour comes to the fore in pictures such as Raucher (Smoker) and Bettler (Begger). These comedies are counterpoised by other figures that are physically constrained in ways symbolic of psychological angst – there is a hunchback and someone with a harelip, others are burdened with heavy fur mantels, adorned with huge hats or ridiculously exaggerated features.
Themes of bodily containment and deconstruction also run current in the new sculptures. In one piece a bulbous torso hangs from the wall. Covered in copper the piece possesses a mute preciousness. Focus is drawn to the quiet face, solemn with eyes shut and the fact that the figure is limbless is almost hard to see, so great is the presence of its rounded form. In another piece this experience is inverted when the torso is replaced by a wicker basket. Head, hands and feet in carved lime wood are attached to this boxy, lifeless device. Yet there are also moments of silent surprise. In one piece out of a top hat emerges not a white rabbit, but a naked old woman seamlessly sculpted and treated in the traditional technique of ‘fassen’ (the german word for polychromey). As in the drawings, a range of influences are fused, perhaps most notably in Archface, at once reminiscent of Jugendstil as well as an entrance to a Buddhist temple, a passage. Carved to the point at which it is so smooth and undulating it resembles oozing volcanic lava and then covered in silver, it seems to almost defy the material of which it was made. Meanwhile, a final piece made of plaster, crumbling at the edges, invites a more questioning reading of the other polished surfaces.
Trained as a woodcarver, in her sculptures and drawings, Varga Weisz creates timeless works which she says she wants ‘to take on a life of their own and gain their own expression’. By means of a fusion of influences from Gothic Madonnas to the Teletubbies, her works encapsulate simultaneously states of adult knowingness and childhood innocence, personal reference and collective memory. The determination and tenacity with which she works is urgently felt throughout.
Paloma Varga Weisz, born in 1966, was raised in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, Germany. She lives and works in Düsseldorf. She has had solo exhibitions at the Museum Kurhaus Kleve, 2005 and has been included in numerous group exhibitions including Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, Kunstverein Düsseldorf, 2005 Venice Biennale, the Berlin Biennial, 2006, as well the permanent collection of K21.
21 Oct - 19 Nov 2005
Sadie Coles HQ is pleased to host the first solo exhibition in London of work by Paloma Varga Weisz, a German artist living in Dusseldorf. The works in this exhibition include a chorus of painted wood figures and a large group of works on paper. With their hands gently folded, their bodies truncated to the torso, the carved sculptures assume the role of mute, meditative observers. Carved in traditional lime-wood and painted with layers of softly polished paint, they recall the quiet decoration of choir stalls and pulpits in early churches, with a purity reminiscent of medieval sculptures. While connected to these protestant traditions the nondenominational character of the personages allows links to be forged with mysticism and eastern religions, the inclusion of the dog echoing the worship of non human deities. Or, heading in a more pagan direction, Varga Weisz’ characters recall the cast of fairytales or the fanciful figures of Alice in Wonderland.
Varga Weisz’ figures also represent a material version of emotional and psychological states, something that is revealed clearly in the drawings. They have a lightness and humour that often give way to a more melancholic feel once carved into wood. On paper, some of the figures portrayed are on occasion like sweet and confused gargoyles - many have sprouted double heads, multiple sets of eyes and comic expressions: physical manifestations of psychological states of pleasure or anxiety.
The plurality of references extends throughout Varga Weisz’ work: the child who has grown a full body of feathers could be the progeny of the birdmen of fables, while a series of ‘bumpmen’, whose bodies have become a mass of protrusions, as if afflicted by some ghastly plague, arouse pity and repulsion in equal measure. Her large scale museum installations see figures swaddled in sheets for clothing, tied with ropes and bound to poles; crucified or lynched, they appear as desolate allegories of death and possible resurrection.
Paloma Varga Weisz lives and works in Dusseldorf, Germany. In 2004 she had a solo show at Museum Kurhaus Kleve; she was included in this year’s Venice Biennale in the Arsenale in Always a Little Further, curated by Rosa Martìnez; and in 2006 her work will be included in the Berlin Biennial. The exhibition in Kleve was accompanied by a catalogue of her work.
A new publication of the works on paper of Paloma Varga Weisz is available during the exhibition.