Beat Zoderer: Spickel

taubert contemporary is pleased to present new works by Beat Zoderer in an exhibition which opens on the occasion of Berlin Gallery Weekend 2014.

The title of the exhibition refers to Zoderer’s Swiss origin, since the word Spickel (‘gusset’ in English) only has meaning in Swiss German, as a wedge. The German synonym Zwickel, which also means ‘gusset’ in English, has several meanings, ranging from a two-euro coin, a specific food, and the triangle as an image in a coat of arms, to the wedge-shaped part of the cerebrum where the visual centre is located.

The meaning of Beat Zoderer’s new works is in itself an oxymoron – the gusset as a spherical lune. But these seemingly contradictory terms describe precisely the main subject of his work - almost as artistic interpretations of spherical geometry. Are there points which are limited by two great circles (a graphic example is the globe on which the meridians with their end points North and South Poles enclose a curved surface) then Zoderer plays with the two-dimensionality of the circles and the three-dimensionality of the globe and in the various overlays creates completely new colours and shapes.

In the eponymous works in paper, Zoderer succeeds in deriving new aspects from these very familiar geometric shapes by means of a method of segmentation. By inserting different triangular and coloured ‘gussets’, he goes to the core of these geometric shapes and presents new forms of segmentation.

The repetition of a motif in different forms and artistic examination can be seen already in Zoderer’s early work and is given renewed quality here. Even the staples, which visibly shape the individual segments, are a deliberate artistic element.

Under the title ¾ Kreisexzenter, glass works are presented for the first time consisting of several overlapping circular segments of enamelled glass. This results in a subtractive blend of colours which provides insights into the circle and its subdivisions. The object itself floats off the wall and through its completely unfamiliar look and feel, entices the viewer to touch it. One might speak of an "opaque transparency", which attracts and distances the viewer at the same time. This is where Zoderer adds another meaning to the word Spickel while keeping up the apparent contradictions.

Among several multi-piece mural works, a five-part group of sculptures as well as one larger sculpture, all cast in concrete, are shown. Here, the structure of the works is difficult to decipher, as the theme of the globe is deconstructed and put together anew over and over again. So it is not surprising that the viewer gets the impression that each globe is composed of several other, smaller globes and their parts. Again an artistic interpretation of segments cast in forms that are reminiscent of cell structures.

Zoderer exploits the deconstruction for the construction of new images – and in this way his works can always be easily identified.

Beat Zoderer was born in 1959 in Zurich, Switzerland. He lives and works in Wettingen, Switzerland and in Genoa, Italy.

Beat Zoderer: Spickel

artist:
Beat Zoderer