Eva Rothschild
Hot Touch
Kunstverein Hannover
Sophienstraße 2
D–30159 Hannover
www.kunstverein-hannover.de
Tuesday to Saturday 12.00–7.00 pm
Sunday and public holiday 11.00 am–7.00 pm
Rothschild, whose works have already been shown internationally, is regarded as a significant representative of a generation of young artists who occupy themselves sculpturally with the classical treatment of abstraction. By drawing on the minimalist vocabulary of forms from the 1960s and 1970s and employing very diverse materials, Rothschild creates a tension-filled connection between form and material in her works.
The fragile and linear stylistic language of Eva Rothschild’s sculptures and objects are persuasive with their compositional clarity and strictness. The contrast between seemingly geometrical and organic or abstract and figural forms with natural and industrially manufactured materials produce a fascinating interaction.
Rothschild’s working method is marked by constant experimentation with new forms, materials and techniques, over the course of which she became very interested in the production processes. The artist employs diverse combinations of leather, paper, Plexiglas, clay, wood or metal and likewise links such classic crafts as weaving and pottery with typical sculptural methods as welding and casting.
In “Natural Beauty” (2009), a further free-standing architectonically stable, T-shaped spatial element black leather ropes and loosely hanging rope ends meander their way through a net-like weave of geometrical polygons made out of wood.
The association with snakes is figuratively confirmed in another exhibition space: In a series of mid-sized coloured photographs, persons from Hannover are depicted posing alone or in groups with one or more snakes. For the “People with Snakes” (2011) series, Eva Rothschild initiated a special photo shoot at the Kunstverein Hannover prior to the exhibition, during which the participants were shown with either a royal python, a corn snake, a boa or a milk snake. The photographs made under Rothschild’s supervision fluctuate between the symbolic significance of the snake, its shimmering surface and a sense of danger and unease.
In Rothschild’s world of objects, the history of abstract art and the tradition of geometrical forms encounter the often mysterious aura of material. Rational minimalism encounters emotional mysticism. By playing with illusions and seemingly annulling physical laws in the process, Rothschild succeeds in irritating the viewer, for example in “Sunrise” (2011), a vertically placed tire with free-falling leather bands that seemingly hovers in space.
With the exhibition title “Hot Touch” touching and encountering are addressed and hence the relationship between the diverse characteristic feature in Rothschild’s art. Like the encounter between snakes and people, the connection between the various materials and forms in her works suggests a duality that is accompanied by unconventional alliances at the same time. Eva Rothschild subverts insignia of modernity with irrationality, emotionality and contentual irritations that lend the pieces an unusual melancholy, causing them to veer between visionary progress and reactionary retreat.
Curated by
René Zechlin, director Kunstverein Hannover
Media contact
Catharina Rahlff-Mackeprang, Kunstverein Hannover
presse@kunstverein-hannover.de
T +49 (0)511 169 92 78–12
Press material is available for download at www.kunstverein-hannover.de/presse.
Edition
Eva Rothschild
“Hot Touch”, 2011
photograph
42,8 x 30,5 cm
signed, numbered
The exhibition was generously supported by
the state of Lower Saxony
Stiftung Niedersachsen
The Kunstverein is institutionally supported by the Cultural Office of the Capital City of Hannover.
*Image above:
Courtesy Stuart Shave / Modern Art, London.
