On the spectrum, off the wall
Citing the anarchic potential of colour, Berliner Katharina Grosse pushes the boundaries of subject and object, letting her work bleed across spatial planes. Breaking the rules begins with the foundations – her canvas anything from terra firma, to vertical structures, to the void. In an early work she blanketed her bedroom with colour. This Spring, she’ll ghost bust the warehouse monochromes of our post-industrial greyscale interior with one of her signature immersive installations.
Production still from the ART21 "Art in the Twenty-First Century" Season 7 episode, "Fiction," 2014 © ART21, Inc.
Previously applying her practice to buildings in New York City, New Orleans, Moscow, Istanbul and Taipei, Grosse has firmly established the power of colour, and her presence in the art world. She has worked specifically in response to Hurricane Sandy and Hurricane Katrina, her neon orange work in New Orleans’ ninth ward a stark, uplifting contrast to the surrounding devastation.
Describing her process as thought, and output as language, it’s no surprise she’s influenced by Dadaist painters and poets. Tempted as I am to call the work abstract, I stand corrected, as abstraction relates (albeit removed) to a real thing, whereas Grosse’s focus is on the thing as the thing.
Her tools range from a cherry picker to an industrial strength spray can, and while working at scale is no doubt alluring, recent representation by Gagosian gallery, arguably one of the pre-eminent contemporary art galleries of today, has also resulted in the exhibition of works on paper and sale-sized canvas – series of smaller instances which nevertheless capture her commitment to a bold, saturated colour scheme.
Proving she hasn’t been tamed by the white cube, she’ll take to our Public Space in September, creating a site-specific installation that will feature explosive elements that contrast with the everyday. You won’t want to miss this transformation. I for one am looking forward to the good cheer of colour and its warm communicative embrace.
‘Painting is simply what I want to do when I open my eyes. I indulge in exuberance and aggressive energy without killing anybody.’ Katharina Grosse, interviewed by fellow German artist Ati Maier in @BOMBMagazine, 2011 – coming to @Carriageworks, September 2017.