ART CITIES:Athens-Christiane Löhr
Christiane Löhr’s. work 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 sculptures, seem rather unusual in light of the simplicity of their materials, because these run counter to our visual expectations .
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Bernier/Eliades Gallery Archive
Christiane Löhr in her solo exhibition at Bernier/Eliades Gallery, shows an installation, a selection of small sculptures, as well as works on paper of different size – big formats of oil pastel and small pencil drawings. Löhr’s work evolves through her direct contact with nature and it is here that she finds materials such as plant stalks, dandelion or ivy seeds, which are used to construct tiny sculptures reminiscent of everyday objects or architecture. She also uses horsehair in order to make small, hand sized, as well as large, wall sized ‘drawings’ in her various installations. For her contact with nature the artist says “When I was 18 years old, I won a horse and from that horse I was for 25 years in direct contact with nature. Going there every day, observing changings of nature, and this happened while I was studying art. Slowly it all came in to my work and began to be in materialistic terms, and in observation of place and space, it came in to my work”. In her work the artist appears to follow an inner geometry inherent in her materials; the objects show themselves as examples of imaginary architecture, surprisingly light and fragile, yet powerful and stable. Proportion and space are the major themes of her works on paper. Lines ‘grow’ out from a point often from the bottom of the page to the top edge, the artist describes it as a “a streaming out, from the inside to the outside”. Visually, the structures strive for space far beyond the borders of the paper, it seems they could grow endlessly and take over the room. In her exhibition at Bernier/Eliades Gallery the artist show a voluminous installation realized with horse hair and needles tensioned through the space of the gallery. In this show also are exhibited middle-size drawings with oil pastel and sculptures of different format. The diverse densities of drawings, and sculptures that are inherent in the installation are working with light and space in various manners – the tubular forms of stretched horse hair seem to capture and concentrate space, while the compact black oil pastel signs of the drawings bring light to gleam by agglomerating and densifying the space of the paper sheet.
Info: Bernier/Eliades Gallery, 7 Eptachalkou Str., Thisio, Athens, Duration: 28/2-24/4/19, Days & Hours: Tue- Fri 10:30-18:30, Sat: 12:00-16:00, http://bernier-eliades.gr
