Alexander Gutke

July 7 – August 25 2013

Centre stage in Alexander Gutke’s solo show at Kunsthalle are two works: a new version of Folded into One (2012) and Soundtrack (2013). Folded into One (2013) consists of hundreds of piled up cardboard boxes printed with a view of the universe. The dark sky with the stars as an epitome of space has turned here into a picture that contains space again. And it leads on to a paradox inherent to the printed illustration. The picture turns into an antithesis of its own original, as all substance in the universe - the twinkling stars - appear by absence of paint, whereas vice versa the illustration of the void is the result of the maximum application of paint.
Soundtrack inhabits both smaller halls of Kunsthalle. It is a 6 channel audio-work that is synchronised to a 16mm film. The film projector is in the same room as the speakers, but projects its image through a window into the adjacent room. The projection shows nothing else than the projector from the other room, filmed from various angles. The sound emanating from the speakers shares the self-confidential attitude of the projection: It consists only of noises originally made by the film projector. The various sounds - clicking, chopping, scraping - have been arranged into a kind of minimalist-abstract symphony by the artist; what were originally unwanted interferences thus become creative material and simultaneously comment on the intrinsic value of the representational device.
The analysis of different media and modes of representation is key to Alexander Gutkes artistic approach. In combination with a selection of further works, his show seems like universal, three-dimensional semiotics where the intrinsic value of signifié and signifiant and their controversial relation to each other results in a multifaceted display.

Oliver Kielmayer