Esther Stocker’s black foam core interrupts a white space in unusual and unexpected ways(photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Austrian Cultural Forum
11 East 52nd St. between Madison & Fifth Aves.
Daily through September 5, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
212-319-5300
www.acfny.org
fünf räume slideshow
For “Fünf Räume,” or “Five Rooms,” the Austrian Cultural Forum invited a group of emerging Austrian artists to create site-specific installations in five gallery spaces, transforming four floors of the unusual Midtown glass tower, which was designed by Raimund Abraham. Curated by David Harper and Andreas Stadler, the works evoke politics, spirituality, and everyday life while questioning the nature of space. On the first floor, Italian-born Esther Stocker has attached black masking tape and foam core to the ceiling, which will continue to droop through the duration of the exhibition, closing in on visitors. Clemens Hollerer has placed broken slats of wood, painted in red, white, and blue, along the stairway wall, an ineffective barrier that was unable to serve its purpose, the colors evoking America (and perhaps the freedom given the artists to create whatever they wanted for the exhibition). Zenita Komad and Michael Kienzler have collaborated on “The Empty Mirror,” a chess-inspired collection of sixteen mirrored chairs that bounce light, words, and numbers onto the walls in a dizzying display of self-reflection. Komad and Kienzler, along with Sabine Kienzler, also made the untitled video at the entrance, showing a typewriter tapping out the New Testament quotation “At the beginning was the word” in both English and German. For “Adaption,” in the lower level, Valentin Ruhry created nonworking replicas of electrical outlets, light switches, and a temperature gauge, finding art in the most mundane of places while also examining functionality. Across from that, Ruhry greets viewers with an MDF panel that announces, “Hello World.” In the back of that room, Vancouver-born Daniel Domig’s “The Eyes Are Not Here, There Are No Eyes Here” combines painting and sculpture in a wooden construction that challenges the way paintings are usually displayed, revealing both sides of them within an interlocking series of wooden beams that makes them less accessible. And on the top floor, Italian-born Stocker has redesigned an all-white space in three dimensions, filling it with geometric shapes, made of black foam core, hanging from the ceiling, sticking out of the walls, and rising from the floor. Visitors can walk through this disconcerting room, a sort of artistic maze that comments on the fragility of life and art. “Fünf Räume” is an engaging yet confrontational exhibit that needs to be traversed very carefully. There will be curator-led gallery talks of the exhibit, which ends September 5, on August 24, 26, and 31 at 5:00.