Daniel Gustav Cramer — Thirteen works
27th August — 1st October 2011
Opening reception 26th August, 6 – 8 pm
This is the first solo exhibition by Daniel Gustav Cramer at BolteLang and in Switzerland. Thirteen singular works are subtly linked by a spatial, temporal and contextual line. Each work, in one way or another, suggests and evaluates the distance from point A to B – the interval between two events in time, a volume defined by its periphery or the illusion a reflecting surface creates when mirroring one’s own image. This exhibition explores distance as a primary parameter of experience, as an absence which separates yet at the same time links two entities, while reflecting on both their individual nature and their dependency upon each other.
Sculpture III, 2011, a thin, vertically positioned iron sculpture echoes the underlying theme. It appears, though transformed, again in Untitled, 2011, a shelf of black leather books of varying sizes whose pages are each marked with a dot in the middle, thus creating an invisible, horizontal sculptural space, defined and framed by the covers of the books once closed. Another work, a small polaroid, shows a bitumen street cutting through the dense forest of Yakushima Island, Japan. On the street a monkey and a deer sit facing each other, both staring at each other, holding the other’s gaze. Like in all of Cramer’s Works exhibitions Thirteen works will be an installation of individual elements that together create a distinct tempo and unfold as one single body.
Cramer’s overall practice is comprised of objects such as sculptures, books, photographs and videos that form a visual system. The works appear and reappear in different constellations within various exhibition spaces, creating an ongoing narrative of overlaps, loops and poetic interludes. The different themes that connect the artist’s images, objects and texts are testimony of a complex universe, which stands in constant dialogue with the world itself. The intricate system of references and fragments of visual and textual accounts expands and transforms, and in doing so, echoes essential criteria of human existence – memory, love, death, time, knowledge, doubt and belief – and their representation.
The presentation at BolteLang will further develop Cramer’s recent exhibition series Works, which he began in 2009 and so far includes following exhibitions and publications: Twelve Works, Vera Cortes, Lisbon, 2009; Eight Works, Kunstverein Dortmund 2010; LISTE 15 with BolteLang, 2010; Six Works, Return Gallery, Dublin, 2010; Thirty-Six, a book published by The Green Box, Berlin, 2010, and Late Autumn at Samsa, Berlin (in collaboration with Haris Epaminonda, 2010). Forthcoming exhibitions include Artissima 18 with BolteLang, 2011; Badischer Kunstverein Karlsruhe, 2012 and Kunsthalle Lissabon, 2012, in collaboration with Haris Epaminonda. He has recently started publishing small booklets, five of these will be released at BolteLang during the exhibition. In 2012 a book will be published by Filip, Canada, of the first 50 books of The Infinite Library.