Von Meyenburg Martina: Of Teapots and Other Matters

Katz Contemporary presents new works by Martina von Meyenburg in her second solo exhibition entitled “Of Teapots and Other Matters”. The show features von Meyenburg’s drawings and objects, which will be entering into a direct dialogue with her photographic works for the first time. Martina von Meyenburg’s new objects, constructed with found pieces, focus on the terms “duality” and “confrontation”. By pointing out boundaries or confronting opposites (as in Chained to a teapot) as well as identical objects (as in Sisterhood), something new is created in turn. The dialogue thus starts just at the threshold and the realization comes out of confronting the opposite or identical objects. In “Chained to a teapot” a ceramic teapot is suspended upside down from a heavy iron chain, hovering above the floor. Even though the pot could not possibly wish for a more secure hanging the weight of the massive chain seems to be crushing it. This piece visualizes the catenation or confrontation of heaviness and lightness, danger and security. In a sense it is up to the viewers which feeling dominates for them: Threat and imprisonment or perhaps rather security and freedom? Doesn’t true freedom only exist as long as there are also boundaries?

The piece “Clocks”, consisting of used alarm clocks arranged in a circle that hover a few centimeters above the floor with the hands pointing down – addresses the limits as well as the infinity of time. All of the alarm clocks are ticking at once, but not in the same rhythm. The ticking and ringing noises can no longer be appointed to a single clock, so that time dissolves and boundaries begin to blur. At the same time, all of the dials point downwards – time seems to be hiding its true face from the viewer.

The clocks are ticking steadily – a disturbing noise at first, but eventually it has an almost hypnotic effect on the audience. Every once in a while the contemplative inspection gets abruptly disrupted when one realizes: The clock is ticking! And there they are again, those moments, when the thought of the infinity of existence does not seem absurd – that feeling only lasts, however, until the next alarm goes off.