In their first solo exhibition with the ‘artistic field researcher’ Dirk Meinzer, the gallery FELDBUSCHWIESNER will present works from the years 2010-2012.
The cross-media object and performance artist “is a considerably well-informed but also mischievous ethno-cult junkie” with a “fascination for the Black Forest that is rooted in his childhood”. Immer des Nachts ( Always by Night ) he creates lively collages that are multi-dimensional in terms of content, as well as assemblages, paintings, videos and installations. They tell of his artistic exploratory journeys into the culture and religion of indigenous peoples, into the history of culture and religion and mythology but also into his own biography.
The entry into Meinzer’s modern ‘curiosity cabinet’ begins with an almost bemusing optical illusion of movement, created by the black-and-white striped zebra pattern of a fence that extends through the entire exhibition space. The ‘installational enclosure’ that houses numerous paintings, collages and assemblages enables viewers to immerse themselves in a magical, vivid world full of complex opposites.
One encounters above all poetically composed faces in the form of collages and paintings. However Meinzer loves hoaxes. It is not until a closer look that the creepy components of the collages such as Nostos XI or Rihra are revealed: these comprise of fragments of animals from the evidence room of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, items that each year are illegally imported and confiscated by customs. The parts of snakes, sea horses and insects are combined with preserved food products such as chips and spaghetti as well as high-tech materials such as polyester, brightly coloured pom-poms and paint, or are surrounded by phosphorescent colours.
The collages are very much in the tradition of Arcimboldo’s portraits made of fruit and vegetables, Rauschenberg’s assemblages, Daniel Spoerri’s Eat Art and above all Dieter Roth’s organic art objects. They captivate the viewer by contrasting natural with artificial elements, folklore with advanced civilisations, wit with horror, transience with liveliness. Not least, they tell of colonial exploitation, of human greed and profit-seeking.
Meinzer’s collaged, ambiguous masks, which usually refer to dubious mythological figures, are closely related to his painted and printed works. Archaic, mysterious countenances, for example Huwawa, which are reminiscent of Jean Dubuffet’s Art Brut, spookily populate the exhibition space. They seem to reoccur in a decomposed form in the abstract, brightly patterned paintings such as Immer des Nachts or Koma Somana. These reflect the nocturnal mood of their creator and reinforce -based on the principles of OP-Art– the almost surreal overall impression.
With the video work Papa Wata II the artist provides a counterpart to Mami Wata, a female, seductive African water spirit who also brings suffering and calamity. The male buttocks move ritually to the sound of a folk punk band that is playing gloomy, traditional Tanzanian wedding music accompanied by texts provided by the artist himself.
When Dirk Meinzer’s works are compiled together in an exhibition it becomes an orgiastic celebration in the here and now, which at the same time playfully leaves room for the spiritual.”
(Quote from: Annett Reckert, “Wenn die Vernunft schläft, singen die Sirenen“ (When reason sleeps, the sirens sing), in: Sirenenheime, 2009.)
Dirk Meinzer (*1972, Stuttgart) studied in the class of Claus Böhmler at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg. His works are represented in renowned collections such as the Sammlung Falckenberg, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, the Sammlung der Kunsthalle Göppingen and the Sammlung Stiftungen der Sparkasse Holstein, Bad Oldesloe.
The numerous sponsorships and awards he has received include HAP Grieshaber Stipendium awarded by the City of Reutlingen (2011), the Atelier-und Arbeitsstipendium der AZB Zürcher Bildhauer (2010), the Hamburger Arbeitsstipendium für Bildende Kunst (2007), the Begabtenförderstipendium der Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg (2004 /2005) and the Stipendium der Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes (2000-2004).
His works have been shown in diverse solo exhibitions, such as in the Galerie Olaf Stüber, Berlin and the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Niederlande, as well as in Kunsthalle Göppingen and have also been presented in international group exhibitions in AZB, Zürich, Switzerland, in the David Lawrence Gallery, Los Angeles, USA, in the Galería Candela, San Juan, Puerto Rico and in the Kunstverein Hamburg.
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