NICOLE WERMERS

EXHIBITION PROGRAM 2004

Chemie
November 26, 2004 - January 30, 2005
Grafisches Kabinett



Nicole Wermers, Chemie, Secession 2004


In her collages and sculptures Nicole Wermers relocates the attractions and surfaces of a contemporary consumer culture in architectural structures that hint at the interplay of seduction and control.



Nicole Wermers, Chemie, Secession 2004


In the Grafisches Kabinett of the Secession Nicole Wermers shows a series of paired abstract sculptures. As architectural systems of guidance they form sluices and passages, while their formal structure brings to the mind electronic article surveillance systems at the entrances and exits of department stores. Nicole Wermers takes these artifacts, which usually have a design factor of next to zero, and updates their sculptural potential. Her choice of materials (wood, steel, industrial PVC flooring, among others) takes up a history of minimal sculpture and modernist surface design.



Nicole Wermers, Chemie, Secession 2004


In their flat, reduced form the pieces look almost two-dimensional, while at the same time atmospherically projecting a three-dimensionality that leaves material aspects behind and alludes to a spectrum of invisible radiations and effects - spiritual, of representational symbolism, or electromagnetic. At the same time the twin sculptures also evoke manorial "guardians" to the right and left of portals that regulate the transition between spaces. Thus they dramatize guarded zones of surveillance but also of inquisitive seduction and soundless threat.



Nicole Wermers, Chemie, Secession 2004


As a further element of the exhibition Nicole Wermers shows a new series of collages related to the sculptures: The collages ( Katzensilber V - VII , 2004) use imagery of crystals, uncut precious stones and minerals. They are presented in box-like frame objects. Mounted exclusively on one side the collages give orientation to the rather neutral boxes and "radiate" into the space. The placement supports this impression, so that the frame objects can also be read as material and immaterial sound boxes amplifying the sculptures.



Nicole Wermers, Chemie, Secession 2004


This ambivalently charged energy expands to the staircase leading up to the Grafisches Kabinett, where Nicole Wermers places a steel sculpture. Like in her earlier series French Junkies (2002) the sculpture takes the form of a floor ashtray: An accessory that - like electronic article surveillance systems - regulates consumer behavior, but also contains an auratic moment of seduction.



Nicole Wermers, Chemie, Secession 2004



PUBLICATION

NICOLE WERMERS 40 pages, 18 colored illustrations Authors: Tom Holert, Vanessa Joan Müller Secession 2004, ISBN 3-901926-73-9 Distribution: Revolver Verlag ___________________ available in the shop

NICOLE WERMERS, born 1971 in Emsdetten, Nordrhein Westfalen, lives and works in Hamburg and London
SOLO EXHIBITIONS (Selection): 2004 Katzensilber, Millers Terrace, London; 2003 Galerie Borgmann-Nathusius, Cologne; 2002 French Junkies, Produzentengalerie Hamburg; 2000 Förderkoje (Young Artist Programme), Art Cologne, Cologne, Produzentengalerie Hamburg; GROUP EXHIBITIONS (Selection): 2004 Reality Real, Galerie Gebrüder Lehmann, Dresden; The Future Has A Silver Lining, migros museum für gegenwartskunst, Zurich; 2 oder 3 Dinge, Die Ich Von Dir Weiss, Produzentengalerie Hamburg; Pin Ups, Contemporary Drawing and Collage, Tate Modern, London; 2003 Handlungsräume, Halle für Kunst, Lüneburg; Renderings, Delfina Gallery, London; Neue Kunst in Hamburg, Kunsthaus, Hamburg; Help, Galerie Els Hanappe Underground, Athen; A Nuova Geometria, Galeria Fortes Vilaça, São Paulo; 2002 The Day After, Galerie Cookie Snoie, Rotterdam; Building Anxiety, Ten in One Gallery, New York; 2001 Sammlung Karl-Ernst-Osthaus Museum, Hagen; Liminal, Minimal, Nominal - Architectual Traces, John Hansard Gallery, Southhampton; German Leitkultur, Kunsthalle Friedericianum, Kassel; Zero Gravity, Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Dusseldorf; Videonale Bonn, Bonner Kunstverein; A Sport and A Passtime, Greene Naftali Gallery, New York; Szenarien oder Hang zum Theater, Bonner Kunstverein und Stadthaus Ulm; Szenenwechsel XX, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; 2000 And If There Were No Stories, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London; Pallisades, Centre d’Art, Bretigny-sur-Orge



Nicole Wermers, Chemie, Secession 2004


Photos: Matthias Herrmann
The exhibition is supported by: IFA. Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen e.V.

ALBERT OEHLEN   JOSEPHINE PRYDE

EXHIBITION PROGRAM 2004

For further information and photographic material please contact:
 
Urte Schmitt-Ulms
Secession, Association of Visual Artists Vienna Secession
Friedrichstraße 12, 1010 Vienna
Tel: +43-1-5875307-21, Fax: +43-1-5875307-34
presse@secession.at