Bettina Pousttchi: Ceramics

The Buchmann Gallery announces a solo show with new ceramic works by Bettina Pousttchi.

The starting point for Bettina Pousttchi’s ceramics were photographs of the patterned, blackened oak beams of historic half-timbered houses, which the artist transformed into ceramic modules. The modules are arranged on the wall in ornamental patterns, thus creating a spatial dynamism. In a conversation with the artist for her recent book “The City” Chris Dercon noted: “You go much further, I think, reflecting on ornament not only as a form of life but also as a form of animation.”

The wall friezes combine the language of European architecture with that of the Middle East. This interlacing of perspectives is based on a transnational vision which is central to the artist’s oeuvre.

Taking place simultaneously with the gallery show, and opening on 9 June, two of the most important museums in the United States – the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Washington DC and the Phillips Collection Washington DC – will also be hosting solo shows of Bettina Pousttchi’s work. Both museums will be presenting a central group of works from the artist’s oeuvre.

The Hirshhorn Museum will be showing the first public presentation of the complete 24-part large-format photography series, World Time Clock, which the artist spent eight years working on. Since 2006, Bettina Pousttchi has been traveling around the world’s 24 time zones and taking photographs of a significant public clock in each zone; each clock shows the same local time. In this cycle, Bettina Pousttchi creates a deep philosophical image of the synchronicity of time. This series also reveals her interest in transnational aspects in a globalised reality.

In an exhibition that focuses on Bettina Pousttchi’s sculptural work, the Phillips Collection is showing works from her sculpture series Double Monuments for Flavin and Tatlin (2009-2014). Pousttchi uses constraining materials like crowd barriers – objects found in public spaces – and deforms and stacks them to create sculptural forms that reference the Monument to the Third International by Vladimir Tatlin. Tatlin created his tower, a huge clock, as a memorial for the collective power of the Russian revolution. This is a topic that Dan Flavin also picked up on his Monuments for V. Tatlin (1964-1990). Bettina Pousttchi reflects art historical references and expands on these in her own work by including current social issues.