ART-PRESENTATION: Lena Henke
Working in photography, sculpture, and installation, Lena Henke examines the systems and structures of urban life in her complex spatial sculptures. As a sculptor she uses space as both material and framework, heightening and staging it. She develops her own formal language from her study of theories and aesthetic strategies of Modern and Contemporary art history.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt Archive
Lena Henke presents at the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt “Schrei mich nicht an, Krieger!”, a spatial sculpture work specially created for the Schirn Rotunda, the sculptor reacts to the specific conditions of this freely accessible public space. Lena Henke Henke sees the Rotunda as a space in which interior and exterior merge in a very distinct way: as the entrance to the Schirn, as an exhibition space, and as an element of urban architecture between the Cathedral and the Römer. In her installation Henke concentrates on this ambivalent capacity of the space, thereby creating an awareness of the unique character of the location. In the two opposing entrances to the Rotunda, the artist positioned two aluminium sculptures that are open at the top and filled with sand. It is not clear at first how this sand came to be in and on top of the objects. Henke guides the viewer’s gaze through a system of colors, which accentuates the architecture upwards to the open windows of the circular galleries surrounding the Rotunda. There sand is also placed and trickles outwards and into the sculptures through coarse-meshed metal rolling grills. The visitors can stroll round the galleries and walk through the sand, hence influencing the circulation as well. Henke transforms the Schirn Rotunda into a walkable and constantly changing spatial sculpture in which inside and outside merge. In her formal language and her use of materials she makes deliberate references, in particular to modern and recent art history, bringing together Surrealism and Minimal Art. By consciously investigating traditional artistic strategies and aesthetic concepts, Henke creates new visual experiences and contexts of meaning. The change of perspective is an important element in her works and essential for the insight into things and into life itself. Her works can be read as a self-confident statement of contemporary art, which is given additional expression in the title of her work.
Info: Curator: Katharina Dohm, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Römerberg, Frankfurt, Duration 28/4-30/7/17, Days & Hours: Tue & Fri-Sun 10:00-19:00, Wed-Thu 10:00-22:00 , www.schirn.de
