GREGOR SCHMOLL

Vexations

Private View: Friday, 16 January, 2009, 7pm
17 January bis 14 February, 2009

The series "Vexations" is an analysis of the aesthetic configuration of objects and their surfaces. It comprises photographs of flowers, vases manufactured from the finest biscuit china, whose shapes are generated from the artist´s grimacing profile and the photographic image of these Rubin´s vase. The cycle is complemented by a series of small self-portraits in the style of medical study pictures of hysteria patients in the 19th century. In the singular consideration of individual components pictorial models become obvious, whose evidence is, however, broken in its interplay with other elements and whose semantic content is undermined.
The detailed illustrations of the plants - which are in its production similar to the ones by Eduard Weston or Robert Mapplethorpe - focus on their blossoms or chalices and, with their erotic content, are juxtaposed with the velvety, matt surfaces of the vases. Glancing at the vases is harshly blighted by the sudden jutting out of the outlined grimaces, which inevitably recall the character heads of Franz Xaver Messerschmidt. In the dialogue of the vases, flowers and portraits abstraction takes place in the way of transformation of a Christian-occidental cultural reception and in the deconstruction of one´s own image.

Gregor Schmoll was able to convert the highly prestigious Viennese Porcelain Manufactury Augarten to the production of the vases. With an almost 300 years experience in procelain manufacturing Augarten Vienna turned out to be the ideal partner for this undertaking. "Vexations" is Gregor Schmoll´s third solo exhibition at KUTTNER SIEBERT Gallery.