ART CITIES:Basel-Christiane Löhr

Christiane Löhr’s sculptures, seem rather unusual in light of the simplicity of their materials, because these run counter to our visual expectations. Her solo exhibition at Kunsthaus Baselland, features a selection of small sculptures, as well as works on paper. The works show themselves as examples of imaginary architecture, surprisingly light and fragile, yet powerful and stable.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Kunsthaus Baselland Archive

Christiane Löhr’s art is quintessentially ecological and eco-sustainable, for it uses strictly natural, and thus fully biodegradable, materials which are gathered according to a principle of proximity to places frequented by the artist. Her works do not contemplate any waste. However, this is not the most interesting aspect of the artist’s ecological conscience. Löhr bases the foundations of her work: drawings, sculptures and installations, on the frequentation and daily study of nature. The profound, almost symbiotic, belonging to the plant and animal world generates a simple and harmonious beauty that does not linger on a lyrical vision, but instead finds its basis in an analytical and cognitive approach. Löhr’s attentive observation, focused on the morphological development of living organisms, results in sculptural and structural forms that alter architectural modes with the phytogenetic intelligence that occurs in nature. The formats can vary fundamentally in her work. The last large pillar in space, which she realised in 2015 for the Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum in Shizuoka in Japan, was created out of horse hair and six meters in height. But she focuses on more than just creating form in a particular size. The artist describes it: “For me it’s about appropriating space, in all my works”. In drawing, therefore, her interest is in how the line is made, what the line does and how it absorbs the space around it, or can change that space. And her works in space too are about taking possession, and at the same time transformation, through placement in space.

Info: Curator: Ines Goldbach, Assistant Curator: Eva Falge, Kunsthaus Baselland, St. Jakob-Strasse 170, Basel/ Muttenz, Duration: 27/5-17/7/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 11:00-17:00, http://kunsthausbaselland.ch