Michaela Eichwald: Ergriffenes Dasein, Artist, Writer, Mentalist

Reena Spaulings presents Ergriffenes Dasein: Artist Writer Mentalist, an exhibition of paintings, collages and sculptures by Michaela Eichwald.

For her first solo show at RSFA, Eichwald combines paint, pencil, ink, found images and photograms of things like Weleda iris milk, sometimes yellowed under a fresh coat of boat varnish. Wood panels are painted with brushes and a foam-tipped shoe polish applicator, among other instruments. On the plinths, mussels, vials of baking extract, headache pills, a cloned Rolex, etc, are captured in molded volumes of polyester resin. A collection of medals, brooches and other metallic items are the survivors of a waste processing facility’s antiseptic fire. More sculptural works include polka-dotted scraps of Rhine driftwood and a partly painted-over space heater.

Michaela Eichwald does not know what these things are, or who made them. Artist, writer and mentalist move and are moved, get and are gotten to by the poorest materials, and will sometimes resort to devices such as fishing line or spirit levels to dangle her “vulgar yokel” images in the gallery. These cobbled-together, baked-on, cruddy, alchemical little bodies have a weed-like way of populating space, without puffing themselves up, without wanting to impress or convince.

Michaela Eichwald lives near Cologne. She has shown at WUK, Vienna, 2008; Johann König, Berlin, 2008; Vilma Gold, London, 2007; Kunstverein Hamburg, 2007; Galerie NEU, Berlin, 2007; and was also included in the exhibitions Make Your Own Life: Artists In & Out of Cologne at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, 2006; Kampf um Relevanz, God of Emptiness, Privilège, dependence, Brussels, 2005; and Galerie Buchholz, Cologne, 2005. An archive of Eichwald's artwork, writing and other projects can be found on the website maintained by the artist: http://www.uhutrust.com. Ergriffen adj. moved, taken by/caught. Dasein n life, existence. More info: www.reenaspaulings.com

Michaela Eichwald
ERGRIFFENES DASEIN
Artist Writer Mentalist