db artmag – Deutsche Bank Art’s Online Magazine
Issue No. 26: Cold World
www.db-artmag.com
Winter landscapes, pristine deserts of ice, crystals: in keeping with the chilly season, db artmag’s current issue investigates art below freezing – works that address the theme of coldness either in a concrete way or on a symbolic, social, or metaphorical level.
True North: Isaac Julien is considered to be one of the most important video artists of the present day; his works have often been the subject of controversial debate. His latest video installation addresses the sublime in landscape and juxtaposes the apparently immaculate Arctic panorama with the history of racism, colonialism, and slavery. Cheryl Kaplan met Julien in New York and interviewed him exclusively for db artmag.
Pure white: the winter inspires not only vacationers and athletes, but artists, as well. Ulrich Clewing introduces works from the Deutsche Bank Collection that deal with the season’s dramatic heights and its sharpest and most exquisite contrasts.
Frozen: For Marc Quinn’s installation “Garden,” plants from Asia, Africa, and Europe were sealed in a stainless steel freezer at four degrees below zero Fahrenheit – flowers that will never wilt, arranged together in disregard of every existing botanical system. The promise of eternal life in Quinn’s works, however, contrasts with a complicated technique without whose support his still lifes would otherwise melt and rot away. A portrait by Ossian Ward.
Felt and Fat: Joseph Beuys passionately and idealistically cultivated his legend of felt and fat as an original experience bestowing life and warmth. An essay on the polarity of warmth and coldness in Beuys’ work.
Plus:
Cardboard Memories: New York’s MoMA is dedicating a large retrospective to the German photographer Thomas Demand in March. Harald Fricke visited the artist in his Berlin studio
Examining the concepts of sculpture: The exhibition “Dialog Skulptur” is now showing approximately 100 drawings and sculptures from the Deutsche Bank Collection.
