Werner Reiterer
Eye Sucks World
March 3-May 13, 2007
Opening: Friday, March 2 / 7pm
Tue Sun 10am-6pm
Curators: Peter Pakesch, Katia Schurl
Kunsthaus Graz am
Landesmuseum Joanneum
Lendkai 1, A8020 Graz
T 43-316/8017-9200, F -9212
info@kunsthausgraz.at
http://www.kunsthausgraz.at
The works of Styrian artist Werner Reiterer are characterised by dialogue and communication. The
beholder may feel addressed*, as the artist invites him to reflect on the sense and senselessness of the world we live in. I believe that art per se is actually always about to develop new rules as to how one may perceive the world, says Reiterer finding himself in the lucky position of someone capable of turning the world upside down and make new rules.
In addition to sculptural works, it is mainly drawings that serve as an outlet for the play of Reiterers thoughts. The artists constant formalism, expressed in the consistent use of exactly 17 pencils all differing in thickness for 17 different shades of grey and the consistent format (70 x 50 cm) recall drafts on a sketch pad. Many works from the Gezeichnete Ausstellungen (Drawn exhibitions) series, constantly expanded and complemented by the artist, were implemented in the form of installations and sculptures.
Seemingly familiar as these sculptures are at first glance, they are very irritating on closer inspection. The works appear like a source of irritation in a normal world and quite often it is only small details that are confusing and they involve the person who notices them in a private dialogue. It is a strategy of the paradox Reiterer uses to deprive us of the implicitness, we need to understand reality. It is very evident here that the artist takes pleasure in testing the recipients of his art, undermining expectations vis-à-vis pieces of art per se.
A lapidary note, for instance, mounted on the wall of the exhibition room, invites visitors to roar as loud as they possibly can. Whoever succeeds in overcome his or her cultural education forbidding him or her to be loud in the public space, will be rewarded by a reaction from outside: the exhibition lighting in Space02 starts breathing, both visually and acoustically (Breath [Kunsthaus Graz], 2007). Reiterers principle, to let both objects and material act in a human way stems from an absurd tradition.
In fact, the artist admits, to rape, abuse, ravish and form various objects of everyday life, according to various different rules**, in reality, however, he liberates them from the prison of pre-determined contexts rather than tormenting them. The lapidary creep (like a virus) into unexpected contexts with conscious platitude, but without doubt in a somewhat cryptic manner []*** Lapidary is the term one might also use for Reiterers way of dealing with his own person, being used as a tool in numerous sculptural casts to represent the unacceptable.
May 3 / 7pm
Stephan Berg:
Werner Reiterer and the imaginary effectiveness
Kunsthaus Graz, Space02
——– * Harald Uhr: Von der Kunst in grauen Zellen (Of art in grey cells). In: Die Kultivierung von Eigensinnigkeit, (Cultivating Obstinacy) Werner Reiterer. Editor Galerie Eugen Lendl. Cologne: Salon 2000, P.5.
** See Interview Sabine Schaschl-Cooper and Werner Reiterer: Einige Teile aus einem Ganzen, das in jedes Einzelne passt (Some elements of a whole, fitting into each single one). In: Werner Reiterer. Editor Sabine Schaschl-Cooper. Exhibition catalogue Kunsthaus Baselland 2003. Basel: Christoph Merian 2003, P.6.
*** Harald Uhr: Von der Kunst in grauen Zellen(Of art in grey cells). In: Die Kultivierung von Eigensinnigkeit Cultivating Obstinacy), Werner Reiterer. P.5.