Ralf Ziervogel: Mawhistla views New York

I find it really interesting - even though the image does not really help- and here comes the press release...
The Watermill Brooklyn Gallery, located in DUMBO, is pleased to announce an exhibition of new work by Berlin-based artist Ralf Ziervogel. A fall 2008 artist-in-residence at the Watermill Center, Ziervogel presents a multi-media installation entitled Mawhistla (2009) that attempts to de-re-construct the clichés of viewing.

Taking James McNeill Whistler's "Arrangement in Grey and Black" (also known as "Whistler's Mother") as a collective image as if filtered through Switzerland's physics laboratory CERN Institute, Ziervogel transforms his own "particle accelerator" into a vision of the ghost of Whistler's mother, sitting in the chair.

In a dark room, with a black floor arranged like ice floes lit only by black light, the installation appears like a deranged laboratory. An arrangement of 32 drawings that presents a puzzling stream of letters (A+B+...Z) confounds the viewer and addresses language as a source of faith and superstition. Evolved from ideas developed by logician Kurt Gödel, best known for his "incompleteness" theorems, Ziervogel presents an unfulfilled human-made pattern (stream of letters) to depict a system in the midst of perfunctory malfunction. By arranging the static forms as if codes in an axiomatic system, the installation creates inner-images which are then mirrored as if in a continuous proof destabilized by logic and reasoning.

Ziervogel (b. 1975, Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany) is one of today's most promising young artists whose elaborate drawings and installations combine classical technique with a decadent vision of a depraved society. Full of inferences and references, both trivial and contemplative, Ziervogel's macabre vision is ideal for the post-apocalyptic age.

Ziervogel emerged as Meisterschüler from the class of Lothar Baumgarten, at the School of Fine Arts, Berlin. The young artist has been exhibited internationally, most recently in solo shows at The Modern Art Museum Fort Worth, Texas, Kunstverein Heilbronn and Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Germany as well in group-shows like "Made in Germany" Sprengel Museum Hanover, Germany, "Dream and Trauma" works from the Collection of Dakis Joannou at Kunsthalle Vienna, Austria. His work is included in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Ziervogel is represented by Arndt + Partner (Berlin).

About Watermill Brooklyn Gallery
Watermill Brooklyn Gallery is an exhibition space in the DUMBO neighborhood of Brooklyn which brings the events and projects developed at the Watermill Center on Eastern Long Island to a larger audience in New York City. The gallery promotes Watermill's artists-in-residence, the vast and electic Watermill Collection, as well as other events and collaborators at Watermill.

The gallery is operated by the The Byrd Hoffman Watermill Foundation, a not-for-profit, 501(c) 3 tax-exempt organization chartered in 1969 in the State of New York. BHWMF, as operator of the Watermill Center, seeks to develop new approaches to the arts; to provide young people of diverse cultures with opportunities for artistic growth; and to document the work of its Artistic Director, Robert Wilson, and his contemporaries. In addition to the Watermill Center, the Foundation manages the Robert Wilson Archive and the Watermill Collection. The offices of BHWMF are located in Brooklyn, New York.

February 5 – March 24, 2009
Watermill Brooklyn Gallery

Byrd Hoffman

Watermill Foundation

111 Front Street, #216Brooklyn, New York 11201

Opening reception: Thursday, February 12th6:00-8:00 pm

Curated by Dmitry Komis

For more information on Robert Wilson

and the Byrd Hoffman Watermill Foundation:
http://byrdhoffmanwatermillfoundation.cmail2.com/t/y/l/diirdy/tihdjtxd/r
http://byrdhoffmanwatermillfoundation.cmail2.com/t/y/l/diirdy/tihdjtxd/y