Klodin Erb – Liquid Sense
10 June – 16 July
This year's winner of the Prix Meret Oppenheim, Klodin Erb presents the diversity of her artistic work in two rooms of the gallery. In addition to paintings from different creative phases, her latest video and early sculptures are on view. The show presents a thematic focus of her work in a small retrospective: the relationship between man and nature.
Klodin Erb, Plant’s Life, 1999, fabric, plastic, side table, 102 x 60 x 60 cm (40-1/8 x 23-5/8 x 23-5/8 in.)
Klodin Erb, Plant’s Life, 1999, fabric, plastic, side table, 110 x 70 x 55 cm (43-1/4 x 27-1/2 x 21-5/8 in.)
Klodin Erb, Transformation #4, 2016/17, indian ink on canvas, 200 x 180 cm (78-3/4 x 70-7/8 in.)
The large-format painting Transformation #4 exemplifies the metamorphosis that also take place in various forms in the other works. Next to Transformation #4 are three object-like floral still lifes made of floral fabric from the beginnings of her career in 1999, and next to it hangs a painting from the Nachtisch series of 2013.
Klodin Erb, Jonny Woodhead & The Nightmärlies, 2022, video, 7’48“, Ed. 5 (+ 2 AP), performance & voice: Klodin Erb, sound design: Roland Widmer . zentralton, edit & animation: Susanne Hofer . flimmern
In the video with the wonderful title Johnny Woodhead & The Nightmärlies from 2022, Klodin Erb appears in a large wooden mask and goes through processes of transformation in her own work as a hybrid figure half human half Punch and Judy. In the process, she assumes different identities and merges with them. The puppet-like character, a mask from Glarus customs, and different identities that are echoed in the video are also found in the images from the Nachtisch series.
Klodin Erb, Nachtisch 9, 2013, oil on wood, framed, 46 x 32 cm (18-1/8 x 12-5/8 in.)
Klodin Erb, Nachtisch 10, 2013, oil on wood, framed, 46 x 32 cm (18-1/8 x 12-5/8 in.)
Klodin Erb, Plant’s Life, 1999, fabric, plastic, side table, 85 x 40 x 40 cm (33-1/2 x 15-3/4 x 15-3/4 in.)
The parcelling of the body in collage is a process Klodin Erb employs in the Under the Skin series from 2022. The juxtaposition of images from this series with those from the Nachtisch group illustrates that Klodin Erb has been working on similar issues for many years, but with different artistic means. Two paintings from the Flowers for Sale series of 2021 complete the group of works in this room. These are large-scale flower paintings that allude to the selling off of nature. The paintings were all created on plasticized tablecloths, whose motifs Klodin Erb artfully continued, altered or added new elements to. She reworked the printed patterns to varying degrees. In some pictures the floral background is hardly recognizable anymore in others they are the determining element. Klodin Erb deals with these different levels of reality – the artificial printed plastic ground and her own subtle painterly settings – in a sovereign manner. She traverses the various levels of reality with sure instinct. Here, too, painting is put to the test: Klodin Erb finds a form for painting, in this case in the genre of the flower painting, to assert itself in the digital present.
Klodin Erb, Flowers for Sale #11, 2021, acrylic, oil and spray paint on printed PVC tablecloth, 111 x 80 cm (43-3/4 x 31-1/2 in.)
Klodin Erb, Flowers for Sale #1, 2021, acrylic, oil and spray paint on printed PVC tablecloth, 135 x 78 cm (53-1/8 x 30-3/4 in.)
Klodin Erb, Flowers for Sale #9, 2021, acrylic, oil and spray paint on printed PVC tablecloth, 110 x 120 cm (43-1/4 x 47-1/4 in.)
Klodin Erb, Under the Skin #2, 2022, collage, Dispersion, oil and spraypaint on Japan paper mounted on stretcher, 40 x 55 cm (15-3/4 x 21-5/8 in.)
Klodin Erb, Under the Skin #3, 2022, collage, Dispersion, oil and spraypaint on Japan paper mounted on stretcher, 55 x 45 cm (21-5/8 x 17-3/4 in.)
Klodin Erb, Under the Skin #4, 2022, collage, Dispersion, oil and spraypaint on Japan paper mounted on stretcher, 47 x 38 cm (18-1/2 x 15 in.)
Klodin Erb paints as a researcher, constantly exploring new painterly questions from different angles. In her works, she samples and quotes. She draws extensively from the repository of art history, popular culture, customs, but also from her own work. By reflecting on her own work, Klodin Erb constantly reinvents herself as a painter and develops new painterly possibilities.
Klodin Erb, Ich werde da sein und Tropfen sammeln, 2020, indian ink, pigments, oil, acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 195 x 240 cm (76-3/4 x 94-1/2 in.)
