“Confirming till it’s over” / Christoph Esser
March 15 – 3 May, 2020
Kunsthaus Essen
Rübezahlstr. 33
45134 Essen, Germany
C. Esser merges pieces of different work-groups into interconnected environments in his most recent exhibition at Kunsthaus Essen, “Confirming till it’s over”.
Esser combines monochromatic sculptures and wall objects. The works contain elements of fins, grid structures, and brackets reminding the viewer of air vents, heating devices and gives a sense of multi- mechanized things. The oddly coated surfaces of these pieces declare their own state of fiction in which they signify a technical industrial spectrum of shapes and functions.
The atmosphere is filled up by sounds of water flowing which are generated from pumps moving through a system of clear tubes and aluminum basins. In the basins the liquid goes calm for moments, in clear or stirred conditions, but never for a long time.
The entire scenery is accompanied by paintings. Sketch-like subjects painted in oil with titles like, “The Alps”, “Your Life is a Fucking Illusion”, “Same Shit Different Day”, and “Help” seem to be used as displays of sociocultural dynamics, relying on emotions, latent wishes and fears.
In a fourth room called The Cabinet sits a classical sculpture mounted on a revolving vacuum cleaner packaging box that makes her permanently centering on herself. Title of the piece: “Eve After Paradise”.
– B. Wawrykiewicz