«Heavy Satin» at Last Tango
Groupshow, January 24 until March 14, 2020
Artists
Institution
Location
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Exhibition View Groupshow «Heavy Satin; view on Roman Gysin, Satin Images (beige, grey, pink, red), 2019 and Manon Wertenbroek, Self-portrait 1 and 2, 2019» at Last Tango, Zurich, 2020 / Photo: Kilian Bannwart / Courtesy: the artists and Last Tango
Exhibition View Groupshow «Heavy Satin; view on Manon Wertenbroek, Witch, 2019» at Last Tango, Zurich, 2020 / Photo: Kilian Bannwart / Courtesy: the artists and Last Tango
Exhibition View Groupshow «Heavy Satin; view on Roman Gysin, Hanging Out with Strangers 6, 2020» at Last Tango, Zurich, 2020 / Photo: Kilian Bannwart / Courtesy: the artists and Last Tango
Exhibition View Groupshow «Heavy Satin; view on Lisa Biedlingmaier, I am Healer (Addiction/Collective Memory/Serenity/Intolerance/ Family Tree), 2019 and ANTI me, ANTI you, 2020» at Last Tango, Zurich, 2020 / Photo: Kilian Bannwart / Courtesy: the artists and Last Tango
Exhibition View Groupshow «Heavy Satin» at Last Tango, Zurich, 2020 / Photo: Kilian Bannwart / Courtesy: the artists and Last Tango
Exhibition View Groupshow «Heavy Satin; view on Manon Wertenbroek, Zipper H250, 2019 and Roman Gysin, Satin Images (beige, grey, pink, red), 2019» at Last Tango, Zurich, 2020 / Photo: Kilian Bannwart / Courtesy: the artists and Last Tango
Exhibition View Groupshow «Heavy Satin; view on Roman Gysin, Satin Images (beige, grey, pink, red), 2019; Green And Brown Curves (Lobby Piece), 2013 and Welcome Home II, 2018» at Last Tango, Zurich, 2020 / Photo: Kilian Bannwart / Courtesy: the artists and Last Tango
Exhibition View Groupshow «Heavy Satin; view on Manon Wertenbroek, Self-portrait 1 and 2, 2019 and Roman Gysin, Welcome Home II, 2018» at Last Tango, Zurich, 2020 / Photo: Kilian Bannwart / Courtesy: the artists and Last Tango
Exhibition View Groupshow «Heavy Satin; view on Manon Wertenbroek, Clown, 2019» at Last Tango, Zurich, 2020 / Photo: Kilian Bannwart / Courtesy: the artists and Last Tango
Exhibition View Groupshow «Heavy Satin» at Last Tango, Zurich, 2020 / Photo: Kilian Bannwart / Courtesy: the artists and Last Tango
Heavy Satin is an exhibition that aims to explore the potential of ambiguity, be it through the de-pola-rizing of stereotypes or by testing escapist strategies. The title seeks to conjure thoughts of an impending weight, subtly suggestive of the aggression and machismo of Heavy Metal yet also evoking the voluptuous feminine sensuality of satin.
In Heavy Satin categorical divisions between systems such as decoration vs. fine arts, tastefulness vs. vulgarity, masculinity vs. femininity, artifice vs. reality are challenged. Perspectival shifts in hanging are to be experienced throughout. Roman Gysin‘s wall sculptures are placed at variable heights. Lisa Biedlingmaier‘s work can be seen from various angles and their see-throughness creates a layered view. Manon Wertenbroek‘s Zippers alters our interaction with the wall as the classical support structure.
The artists delve into the complexity of archetypal figures such as the witch or clown (contrasexuality), masquerade as an empowering device or the valorizing of aesthetic canons that have been pejoratively connoted, be it romanticism or the kitsch. There is an omnipresent sense of the crafting and sometimes healing hand, with sculptures, painted photographs, and installations having tactile surfaces and textures such as satin, soil, rope, felt, zip, latex, and tulle.
Roman Gysin leads us into a world of riddles and “faux-play.” Decoration, the uncanny, the fetish, the everyday and unapparent are key to his art. There is something Goberesque in the trap doors and caricatured stone wall sculptures. Their affinity to Gober lies in the fact that they are “kind of camp-objects”: they are a bit too much, exaggerated, theatrical and at times effeminate. There is a truth and celebration to be found in sentimentality and the artifice, two things that have historically been often mocked.
Lisa Biedlingmaier‘s sculptural installations are part of her recent series I am Healer (2019-20) and are composed of steely structures, warming macramés and remedying textiles and objects. Her practice gravitates toward traditional handicraft and is informed by a wide-ranging milieu of feminist writings and healing practices. The history of macramé goes back to the Babylonians and Assyrians who used macramé-style knots as decoration.
In Wertenbroek‘s new body of works of sculptures, painted photographs, and installations she has been testing the lack of fixity and allowing for ideas to cross-pollinate within a single work, or cluster of works. Juxtaposing imagery from literary or psychoanalytical themes her costume-based works Witch (2019) and Clown (2019) are made up of latex casts of the artist’s face and skin. Like a snake changing its skin, Wertenbroek performs a dress up, a form of embellishment as critique.
Exhibition View Groupshow «Heavy Satin» at Last Tango, Zurich, 2020 / Photo: Kilian Bannwart / Courtesy: the artists and Last Tango
Exhibition View Groupshow «Heavy Satin; view on Manon Wertenbroek, Self-portrait 3-5, 2019» at Last Tango, Zurich, 2020 / Photo: Kilian Bannwart / Courtesy: the artists and Last Tango
Exhibition View Groupshow «Heavy Satin» at Last Tango, Zurich, 2020 / Photo: Kilian Bannwart / Courtesy: the artists and Last Tango
Exhibition View Groupshow «Heavy Satin; view on Manon Wertenbroek, Cabin, 2019» at Last Tango, Zurich, 2020 / Photo: Kilian Bannwart / Courtesy: the artists and Last Tango
Exhibition View Groupshow «Heavy Satin; view on Roman Gysin, Upper Westside, 2016 and Caldron, 2018» at Last Tango, Zurich, 2020 / Photo: Kilian Bannwart / Courtesy: the artists and Last Tango
Exhibition View Groupshow «Heavy Satin; view on Roman Gysin, Flap, 2018» at Last Tango, Zurich, 2020 / Photo: Kilian Bannwart / Courtesy: the artists and Last Tango
Exhibition View Groupshow «Heavy Satin; view on Manon Wertenbroek, Self-portrait 4, 2020; Roman Gysin, Hang Out, 2020 and Welcome Home, 2018» at Last Tango, Zurich, 2020 / Photo: Kilian Bannwart / Courtesy: the artists and Last Tango
