With Nest, painter, video artist and photographer Antje Majewski has created a video work that reflects a complex set of approaches to painting, the notation of the visible, magical practices, rituals and animism.
We see the artist leaving her studio in Berlin-Wedding with a construction lamp, powered by colored electric cables, to bring selectively chosen objects, structures and scenes out of the darkness. She appears to be following a prescribed path, which she continues to follow up to the point at which she paints her own hands and face as a ritual act before finally lying down on an urban wasteland of silver balls – “metallic seeds” – in a nest on the floor.
Silver balls already appeared in Majewski’s work in 2010, in a performance with Agnieszka Polska at SPLACE (Berlin). Here, they referred to the Steel Egg (Stalowe Jajo, 1967) by Polish conceptual artist Pawel Freisler. The balls also appear in her painting Der Gärtner der mechanischen Objekte (The Gardener of Mechanical Objects), the balls appear at the same location near her studio.
As in her exhibition The Gimel World. How to Make Objects Talk (2011/12) at Kunsthaus Graz, Majewski’s work concerns the inner truth of things that cannot be described. One can point to them, even cross the line and become part of this world and enter into relation with it.
Nest is produced by Frankfurter Kunstverein (www.fkv.de) and will be premiered at the exhibition Painting of Uncertain Places July 27 – Sep 16, 2012
Antje Majewski (b. 1968 in Marl, Germany) lives and works in Berlin. From 1986 to 19992 she studied art history, history and philosophy in Cologne, Florence and Berlin. Majewski works with painting, video, and performance, often in collaborative contexts. Her works are based on anthropological questions, which she refers to concrete cultural and historical situations. From 1991 numerous solo exhibitions such as „My very gestures“, Salzburger Kunstverein (2008), „The World of Gimel“, Kunsthaus Graz (2011). Majewski is professor for Fine Arts at Muthesius Kunsthochschule Kiel, Germany.
Antje Majewski’s web site: www.antjemajewski.de
