Once There was a Wall in the Middle of the City
200 pieces of sandpaper, sculpture (piece of Berlin Wall) photograph 16,5 x 12 cm
One of the most obvious and recognizable of all of these objects is the Berlin Wall. You can buy pieces of it in tourist shops and even order it on e-bay. My interest lies in how an object of historical significance evolves into something else, in this exhibition, through mass media and tourism. The tourist relates to this object based on how he acquires it. Meaning, just like any other souvenir that he may bring back to his home, he displays this object, just as he would the kitschy t-shirts, the porcelain, etc. and tell people about his trip and how he managed to get hold of this piece. Thus, the history embedded within gets another layer of memory attached to it, that of the historical present. In the exhibition are pieces of sandpaper which I have used to "erase" the wall fragment, in so doing, proving how such an object is impossible but at the same time unnecessarily a thing of the past. The wall fragment leaves traces on the sandpaper, and the fragment itself, becomes eroded but seemingly intact. Memory is an attachment that we create in order to give value to our present existence. In the exhibition, the wall fragment merely becomes another art object, a material given an added value by an artist, and thus, using its historical past to justify a means to an end, much like a tourist justifies it in his cabinet of curiosities.
`Twas a Uniform?
Photograph of a uniform on aludibond (120 x 84 cm) and the transformed uniform - 25 x 60 cm rolled - 2010
`Twas a Uniform? finding it was important because there are many military uniforms to choose from. I was looking for something “special”. I wanted to convert the personal story embedded in the uniform into a fetish, a requisite for wanting it. I finally found what I wanted in a store specializing in German military memorabilia. The one who sold it to me told me that the uniform was an American tent during WWII, then because during the postwar it was difficult to find first-grade material, the tent was made into a military uniform of the Freiwillige Polizei Reserve of the former East Germany. Inside one of the pockets you can find the seal of the company who officially made it. It has undergone changes over time. It has been patched up several times leaving traces of pieces of cloth not matching the original fabric. While I un-sewed it, I found a nametag “Müller” on it, must have belonged to this person. In the exhibition I am offering the strips of cloth to be made into another garment.
‘Twas a Blanket?
Photograph of an NVA-Blanket - 191 x 134,5 cm - and the 3 Objects made of the fabric of the blanket - 2010
‘Twas a Blanket? in the exhibition, the blanket is turned back into thread again, with strips of hair fragments of persons who slept on it entangled into the coils of wool. The deconstruction of the blanket to its basic form, its materiality allows the public to create something new with it. Perception is the first step to generating new memories. For example, the form itself rekindles the public to view these coils of wool to that of a cat playing with it.
Twas a Coin
Combined Object with Photograph - 18 x 24 cm - Unique piece - 2010
‘Twas a Coin, is One deutschmark, dated 1968, found in Ulf’s home. The coin was placed on the tracks and ran over by the train on Torstrasse. This partially erased some of the inscriptions on it.
Twas a Gun?
Installation consisting of a rusted Gun and a Photograph - 18 x 24 cm - 2010
‘Twas a Gun, is a gun that had been thrown away and buried for 20 years only to resurface oxidized. What attracts me to it is how beautiful it looked because it has a reddish patina. The tourist gaze is an aesthetic gaze. The fact that it is a gun became an important decisive factor as well. Also, the fetish arises from the questions that come with it, was it thrown intentionally, was it used to kill someone, etc. The tourist gaze is a fetish gaze. The gun is left to continue to rust. Memory serves as a tool by which the public can take part of its evolution, not merely the transformation of its materiality but transforming its memory into their own.
Twas a Helmet
Installation Twas a Helmet consisting of the helmet transformed into a urinal and a photograph - 30 x 40 cm
In ‘Twas a Helmet, someone told someone, that at one point during the postwar some people converted it into a bedside urinal, told someone and told me. In this piece, what I wanted to do was to re-create that transformation. Although the helmet-urinal functions, it does not serve this purpose because of the socio-economic context surrounding its environment and more so, the person re-creating it could have easily avoided such a time consuming task, bought a cheap plastic colander in a convenience store. It’s ulitilitarian failure accommodates the rise of a new function, that of a memorial to the object’s second purpose, that of becoming a colander. A person, generations after, constructs an object-myth narrative based on memory that has been handed to him from others. For me, the story of how the helmet became a urinal and how this became part of my experience is of the same importance as the physical evidence exhibited. The object shown in the gallery therefore recovers both its functionality when activated by storytelling. It takes on its third function when the public activates their narrative on it.
Call Waiting
Object / Installation
A phone is installed in the lobby, entrance, or even in the exhibition space.
The phone rings non-stop during the whole hours in which the exhibition takes place.
Walk in my shoes
Collection of shoes
This project consists of a collection of shoes used by the artist.
Each shoe contains a soybean seed in the shoe making it annoying, even painful to walk in them. The project investigates the intricasies of identity in relation to complexities of geopolitical space, nomadism and memory.
2009 - work-in progress
Pure Shores
video performance - 22:56 minutes
Edition of 5 / 2AP / 1EP
Kristoffer Ardeña writes all the nicknames of his high school classmates on the sand only to be erased by the waves.
2008
Dinner Dates
An archive of approximately 400 table napkins contains the date, address, time, doodles, anecdotes and other pertinent information of the artist’s encounter in parties, lunches, dinners and other social situations in which food and drinks were present. The performance started in January and ended in December 2008.
Sugarland
video performance - 2:26 minutes
Edition of 5 / 2AP / 1EP
Topographical map of the Philippines made out of sugar is slowly deconstructed. Ants carry the sugar grain on their back and disappear into their ant hill.
2008
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