lona Lenk & Christa Giger from white to zero
From white to zero is not a group of artists. From white to zero is not the title of an exhibition.
From white to zero is not an art manifesto. From white to zero are two artists, Christa Giger and Ilona Lenk. From white to zero: Christa Giger and Ilona Lenk: we see ourselves as two independent artists who work in very different ways. We think that exhibiting our works in a joint context can increase their power of expression above and beyond the statements they are able to make as individual works. Two artists with different artistic issues, with different ways of implementing them, with different questions about the ability of art to even give answers to the complexity of the world today at all. Both concentrate these questions into a form of minimalism in the guise of reduction, concretion, and concentration. What looks like minimalism is actually more like a condensate of what we are made of; from white to zero can also mean: from life to death, from being to non-being, from no more colour – white – to the total absence of colour – to zero. Zero, the exceptional number, without which mathematics does not work, but which at the same time represents nothing and that which is absent. Art is always also a confrontation with being present and being absent. The game of shadows – the presence and absence of light – plays an important role in the work of both artists; the non-colour white unites Giger and Lenk: white as a non-statement in contrast to all the colours. White, in its capacity as a non-colour, allows you to focus on the shape; both artists leave the two-dimensional frame of the image without giving up the image itself: they work with the shadow – that is, the abstract third dimension that can only be put together inside the head. This third dimension, with its nails or folds on show, is the real main character in the works of both. Transience is another unifying theme of Giger and Lenk: rusting nails, printed plexiglass sheets, which – placed in the natural environment – can wither plants and become the refuge of beetles, spiders, and scorpions; nails, which resemble worms with their curves, absurd beings of an absurd civilization.
From white to zero is not a group of artists. From white to zero is not the title of an exhibition.
From white to zero is not an art manifesto. From white to zero are two artists, Christa Giger and Ilona Lenk. From white to zero: Christa Giger and Ilona Lenk: we see ourselves as two independent artists who work in very different ways. We think that exhibiting our works in a joint context can increase their power of expression above and beyond the statements they are able to make as individual works. Two artists with different artistic issues, with different ways of implementing them, with different questions about the ability of art to even give answers to the complexity of the world today at all. Both concentrate these questions into a form of minimalism in the guise of reduction, concretion, and concentration. What looks like minimalism is actually more like a condensate of what we are made of; from white to zero can also mean: from life to death, from being to non-being, from no more colour – white – to the total absence of colour – to zero. Zero, the exceptional number, without which mathematics does not work, but which at the same time represents nothing and that which is absent. Art is always also a confrontation with being present and being absent. The game of shadows – the presence and absence of light – plays an important role in the work of both artists; the non-colour white unites Giger and Lenk: white as a non-statement in contrast to all the colours. White, in its capacity as a non-colour, allows you to focus on the shape; both artists leave the two-dimensional frame of the image without giving up the image itself: they work with the shadow – that is, the abstract third dimension that can only be put together inside the head. This third dimension, with its nails or folds on show, is the real main character in the works of both. Transience is another unifying theme of Giger and Lenk: rusting nails, printed plexiglass sheets, which – placed in the natural environment – can wither plants and become the refuge of beetles, spiders, and scorpions; nails, which resemble worms with their curves, absurd beings of an absurd civilization.
Christa Giger Atelier
vicolo Montagna 4 Palazzo Comacio
6514 Sementina Campagnola 296
6535 Roveredo
Phone Phone
41+ (0) 78 810 73 71 41+ (0) 78 810 73 71
Mail Mail
christa.giger@ bluewin.ch christa.giger@ bluewin.ch
Web Web
www.christagiger.com www.christagiger.com
vicolo Montagna 4 Palazzo Comacio
6514 Sementina Campagnola 296
6535 Roveredo
Phone Phone
41+ (0) 78 810 73 71 41+ (0) 78 810 73 71
Mail Mail
christa.giger@ bluewin.ch christa.giger@ bluewin.ch
Web Web
www.christagiger.com www.christagiger.com