In Alexandra Ranner's (*1967, Osterhofen) works there is an interplay: films are sculptures, objects look like snapshots. In the solo exhibition, they are arranged on an equal footing and speak for themselves in accordance with the title.
Narratives in the form of these film-sculpture amalgams are at the heart of the exhibition. They function primarily through their atmosphere, elude linear narration and have an effect through their strong, ambivalent associations. Or as Alexandra Ranner calls it: "Emotional space". Moving image resists two-dimensionality by not only showing space, but also thematizing it: melancholic, grotesque, dreamlike and ominously expectant compositions of actors, set design and one-shot video or tableau vivant, which refer to the theater as well as to a tradition of sculpture or video art and thus occupy an intermediate space.
"April" (2006) resembles a Beckettian chamber play. The feeling of powerlessness and being at the mercy of the detached, complaining heads have both a very real and an absurd character here - unlike in some everyday situations, which can be characterized by projections. They seem to resist transience and surrender to it anyway. Like the wax figures in octopus form, human form or alien form, snapshots next to films that, despite their immaterial core, have a solid shell and thus become sculptural.
Journals from the 19th century showed octopuses, poulpes and octopuses as sea monsters attacking sailors and bathers. The intelligent, color- and shape-changing octopus inspired articles and front pages in entertainment journals with its mythical appeal. Donna Haraway also takes the octopus as a symbolic starting point for her theory: her linking, "tentacular" thinking encourages us to see things in complex contexts rather than in the linear logic of the master's tools. Alexandra Ranner's picture stories are no exception. They are intuitive, ambivalent, multidimensionally linked - and often initially elude language due to their multiple affective associations.
Her works have been shown at the 49th Biennale di Venezia, 1st Triennale Yokohama, International Art Exhibition Athens, MuMok Vienna, Museo de Arte Moderno y Contemporáneo de Santander y Cantabria, Art Basel Statements and De Vleeshal Middelburg, among others. Her permanent installation "I've had enough" has been on display in public spaces in Herford since 2017. In addition to her artistic work, Ranner is a professor at the University of the Arts, where she teaches fine arts in the architecture program.
"Films & Sculptures" is Alexandra Ranner's fourth solo exhibition at Galerie Mathias Güntner.
Text: Leonie Döpper
Narratives in the form of these film-sculpture amalgams are at the heart of the exhibition. They function primarily through their atmosphere, elude linear narration and have an effect through their strong, ambivalent associations. Or as Alexandra Ranner calls it: "Emotional space". Moving image resists two-dimensionality by not only showing space, but also thematizing it: melancholic, grotesque, dreamlike and ominously expectant compositions of actors, set design and one-shot video or tableau vivant, which refer to the theater as well as to a tradition of sculpture or video art and thus occupy an intermediate space.
"April" (2006) resembles a Beckettian chamber play. The feeling of powerlessness and being at the mercy of the detached, complaining heads have both a very real and an absurd character here - unlike in some everyday situations, which can be characterized by projections. They seem to resist transience and surrender to it anyway. Like the wax figures in octopus form, human form or alien form, snapshots next to films that, despite their immaterial core, have a solid shell and thus become sculptural.
Journals from the 19th century showed octopuses, poulpes and octopuses as sea monsters attacking sailors and bathers. The intelligent, color- and shape-changing octopus inspired articles and front pages in entertainment journals with its mythical appeal. Donna Haraway also takes the octopus as a symbolic starting point for her theory: her linking, "tentacular" thinking encourages us to see things in complex contexts rather than in the linear logic of the master's tools. Alexandra Ranner's picture stories are no exception. They are intuitive, ambivalent, multidimensionally linked - and often initially elude language due to their multiple affective associations.
Her works have been shown at the 49th Biennale di Venezia, 1st Triennale Yokohama, International Art Exhibition Athens, MuMok Vienna, Museo de Arte Moderno y Contemporáneo de Santander y Cantabria, Art Basel Statements and De Vleeshal Middelburg, among others. Her permanent installation "I've had enough" has been on display in public spaces in Herford since 2017. In addition to her artistic work, Ranner is a professor at the University of the Arts, where she teaches fine arts in the architecture program.
"Films & Sculptures" is Alexandra Ranner's fourth solo exhibition at Galerie Mathias Güntner.
Text: Leonie Döpper