04/05/2023
KEIN MOND KEINE STERNE
11.05 @ 6pm
Paul Grodhues was born in 1996 in Germany and primarily focusses on painting. He recently completed his university exchange from Fine Arts to Textile Design at Escola Massana, Barcelona.
The textile-based exhibits are composed with figures filled of cotton wool, as well as seams that become drawing lines. His paintings evolve provisionally in an abstract process of many layers, superimpositions, and fragmented elements later used in a targeted manner. Several components further elaborate into concrete objects or figures, while others stay abstract and undefined.
His conceptual approach proves to be equally fragmental. While exploring antique and book markets, he accumulates an individual reservoir of items, which he expands into narratives. Collected text passages from his favorite novels supplement his works in titling, not always reasonable yet sometimes confusing and mysterious. Blurring the line between fiction and reality, his work is considered infused by the concept of magic realism. Figures remain enigmatic. The combination of absurdity and banality allows the work to portray mystic, humorous, exaggerated and ironic elements.
Acrobats and dancers as well as jugglers and peddlers constitute his main characters, initially inspired by his experiences with Latin American culture.
KEIN MOND KEINE STERNE contains a new body of his work, whose protagonists suffer from sleep deprivation. Inspired by a storyline of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ One Hundred Years of Solitude, “(…) they had indeed contracted the illness of insomnia. (…), they could not get to sleep and spent the whole day dreaming on their feet. In that state of hallucinated lucidity, not only did they see the images of their own dreams, but some saw the images dreamed by others. It was as if the house were full of visitors. (…). Those who wanted to sleep, not from fatigue but because of the nostalgia for dreams, tried all kinds of methods of exhausting themselves. And so on and on in a vicious circle that lasted entire nights.”
Artwork by Simon Bretz