When the human individual interacts or engages in dialogue with another, the nucleus of social, cultural and political structures becomes defined. Three form a group and when the group undergoes regression, it transforms into a mass. Noise is not merely an audio phenomenon. It is also visual. Clemens Krauss starts his practice at a personal, individual level and then builds outwards, linking from the particular to the general. In his show 'Noise An Early Disorder', a series of recent paintings, his typical impasto mode interprets the body as both a personal moment of privacy and as a setting for contemporary sociopolitical conflicts and processes. Individuals, faces, and masses are all reduced to visual noise. In his recent video works 'Incident', 'Occurrence', and ‘What are we silent about?’, footage taken by the artist in his youth is recombined and interlaced with a narrative of free association that confronts topics such as trauma, memory, misunderstanding and repetition from a contemporary perspective.
The sculptural piece 'Self-portrait as a child' is a reconstruction of Krauss in his early teens, lying on the floor as though a mere surface. In a world of political fragility and ignorance, Krauss pleads for an acceptance of nescience without moral implication by choosing tactics of exaggeration, critique and humor as a foundation for his art. With his pastose paintings and controversial video work, Clemens Krauss is among the most interesting artists of his generation. In addition to his studies at the Berlin University of the Arts, he also completed degrees in medicine and psychiatry. His works have been exhibited in numerous international solo and group shows in major museums, institutions and galleries around the world. He is currently an assistant professor of painting at a fine arts university in Berlin.
‘Incident’ In ‘Incident’, a camera moves us across a domestic interior before arriving to a painting of ships ravaged by a storm. This artwork serves as an entry point into a narrative of free association guided by digitally generated vocals. Drawing from personal footage taken by the artist as a child and teenager, ‘Incident’ is a deeply nostalgic work that investigates the nature of knowing. By exploring the trans-generational transferral of knowledge, Krauss contends with the subjectivity of perception.
‘Occurrence’ In ‘Occurrence’, a series of shots jump between exteriors, objects, and footage of Krauss in his youth. By relocating these clumsy childhood experiments into a politically relevant contemporary context, Krauss examines questions of trauma, performance, and the production of knowledge. The disembodied vocals of an unknown narrator are disquieting yet ironic, the effects of which are heightened through distortion techniques such as fish-eye lenses, reflections, and audio modifications. *
‘What are we silent about?’ In perhaps his most ambiguous video work, ‘What are we silent about?’ positions us as voyeurs within a domestic sphere. From a jarring titled angle, we covertly observe anonymous figures in their daily rituals before Krauss appears as young boy to ironically recount a traumatic experience. Through this work, the artist investigates the tension between the seen and the unseen, the heard and the silent. In drawing our attention to the repetition of patterns, Krauss investigates silence as a political category and asks how it is that we know what we know.
VIEW CLIP FROM ‘INCIDENT’ HERE:
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS 2017 Noise â&#x20AC;&#x201C; An Early Disorder, Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney 2016 Little Emperors, Chengdu Museum of Contemporary Art, Chengdu 2015 Friction, DOMINIK MERSCH GALLERY, Sydney 2014 Its time, MARTa Herford, Herford Double Blind, Artport Tel Aviv, The Center for Young Art, Tel Aviv 2013 Like Memory Works, Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney Spielraum, Galerie Laura Marsiaj, Rio de Janeiro Modern Families, Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork, Ireland 2012 Transference Room, Kulturhuset Stockholm, Stockholm, Clemens, Museum of Modern Art, Recife, Brazil Concepts of Isolation, Wooyoungmi Artspace, Seoul, Korea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
2007 Nursery, private individual studio viewing, Artspace Sydney Chromosomes, Berlinische Galerien, Berlin, Kontinuitäten, Kunstverein Augsburg e.V., Augsburg 21+4 Bodies, Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Belgium 2006 The Freud Institute, Austrian Cultural Forum, London The Youth of Today, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt am Main A Space, DNA Berlin 2005 From the series “The Bodybody-Problem”, Art Basel, Miami Art Forum Berlin Austrias, Städtische Galerie, Nordhorn Der Freie Wille (The Free Will), Arena Berlin Come to Light, Cell Project Space, London New works, DNA Gallerie, Berlin 2004 Consultation hour, Performance (with Unwetter), Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool Doppelgänger (identicals), Gallery Dagmar Aichholzer, Villach I’d like to look like my look-alike, Performance, Victoria Miro Gallery, London All about Berlin, WhiteBox, Munich Das Körperkörper-Problem (The Bodybody-Problem), Gallery Kunst&Handel, Graz GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2013 De Leur Temps, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes, France Eröffnung, Galerie Patrick Ebensperger, Berlin, Germany Bienal Internacional de Curitiba, Curitiba, Brazil Berlin Status, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany Videonale, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany 2012 I Am A Berliner, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel-Aviv Alptraum, Goethe-Institut Johannesburg, Johannesburg BEYOND TIME – INTERNATIONAL VIDEO ART TODAY, Kulturhuset Stockholm, Stockholm 2011 Artistas, Galeria Filomena Soares, Lisbon Alptraum, Deutscher Künstlerbund, Berlin 1st Biennale of Painting, HDLU Zagreb, Croatia Bodies, Kunsthalle Dominikanerkirche, Osnabrück, Germany Alptraum, Cell Project Space, London Verschwende deine Jugend, Wendt&Friedmann Galerie, Berlin
‘Biotope’ from the series ‘Noise ’, 2017, oil on canvas, 70 x 90 cm
‘Experiment’ from the series ‘Noise’, 2017, oil on canvas, 90 x 70 cm
‘Retinal vs. Critical’ from the series ‘Noise’, 2017, oil on canvas, 90 x 70 cm
‘Origin’ from the series ‘Noise’, 2017, oil on canvas, 90 x 70 cm
‘Delegation’, from the series ‘Noise’, 2017, oil on canvas, 70 x 90 cm
‘Transmission’ from the series ‘Noise’, 2017, oil on canvas, 90 x 70 cm
‘Wired’, from the series ‘Noise’, 2017, oil on canvas, 70 x 90 cm
‘Spreading’ from the series ‘Noise’, 2017, oil on canvas, 70 x 90 cm
‘Noise’ from the series ‘Noise’, 2017, oil on canvas, 70 x 90 cm
‘Self portrait as a child’, 2017, silicone, oil, own hair, mixed media, dimensions variable
'Incident', 2017, Video8 transferred to DV, 6 minutes, sound, edition of 3+1 AP
‘Occurrence’, 2017, Video8 transferred to DV, 4 minutes, sound, edition of 3+1 AP
'What are we silent about?', 2017, Video8 transferred to DV, 3:30 minutes, sound, edition of 3+1 AP
www.dominikmerschgallery.com 1