ART CITIES:London-Gerwald Rockenschaub and Sylvie Fleury

Two concurrent solo exhibitions of Gerwald Rockenschaub and Sylvie Fleury are on presentation at Thaddaeus Ropac’s Gallery in London that is housed in a grand Georgian mansion, built in 1772 as the London residence of the Bishop of Ely. The work of Gerwald Rockenschaub has been associated with Neo-Geo since the early 1980s, when in a group of young artists concentrated on the formal vocabulary of the Abstract Avant-garde. Although at first glance Sylvie Fleury’s works may seem like an affirmation of the consumer society and its values, on closer inspection a more subtle commentary on superficial beauty becomes apparent.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery Archive

In Sylvie Fleury’s exhibition “Hypnotic Poison” are shown new works alongside pieces from three of the artist’s most significant series, her makeup palettes, a new neon sign installation referencing Christian Dior’s iconic fragrance, Hypnotic Poison, and a new soft Rocket, building on the artist’s earlier rocket works and defying the taut sleekness typically associated with spaceships. With her signature “Makeup palettes”, Fleury invites viewers to experience the plush colors and mirrored finishes writ large, highlighting the strategies of seduction used in makeup packaging and branding. The artist enlarges and simplifies luxury cosmetic items into wall-works and installations in which each product becomes an elusive object of desire. Painted by hand, Fleury’s meticulously brushwork achieves the smooth lines and surfaces of factory-manufactured goods, while simultaneously mimicking the ritualistic application of make-up, suggesting the pursuit of the perfect “finish”. The neon sign, “Hypnotic Poison” (2019), specifically created for the exhibition, casts an immersive, otherworldly green glow, prompting an awareness of the often overlooked by-products of ubiquitous advertising and its underlying associations that subtly permeate our visual culture. “Rocket” (2019) belongs to a series of sculptural works begun by Fleury in the early 1990s, in which she explores the power of spaceships to call into question gender dynamics and the imaginative allure of space. Marking a departure from earlier works, which saw the artist create phallic installations of taut, lipstick-colored rockets, Fleury has reduced the sleek exploratory machine to a humble, plump household pillow, imbuing the sexual connotations of dominance and power with subtle ridicule. Heightening the viewer’s physical experience of the gallery space, Gerwald Rockenschaub’s wall installations, in his first Solo UK exhibition entitled “ROMANTIC / ECLECTIC (REMODELLED CAROUSEL EDIT)”, consist of small-scale rectangular and circular acrylic glass elements. The composition of these Plexiglas tiles, screwed directly onto the walls of the gallery, are an intervention within the setting of the ordered, geometric tiled hallway. As is often the case with Rockenschaub’s exhibitions, the title of this show relates to his interest in music. Drawing upon quotes, or providing disguised hints that could even be seen as the title to an imaginary soundtrack for the exhibition, the title provides a meta-narrative alluding to its content. In “Untitled” (2018), the floor appears transposed onto the wall, seemingly making sense to the eye, yet resisting a formal pattern in contradiction to the order of the hallway’s tiling. Organised disorder also prevails in a ‘code’ of green discs that is applied along the walls of the gallery upstairs, manipulating and upending the innate human habits of visual interpretation and the desire to impose a sense of order or identify patterns in our surroundings. Rockenschaub’s Intarsia works, made of wood and acrylic glass, are based on a decorative technique that flourished during the Italian Renaissance, when pieces of wood veneer in different colours and shapes were applied to a flat surface to form a pattern. Similarly, the Reliefs are contemporary paraphrases of a historical technique; raised acrylic glass elements are applied to MDF surfaces to produce a concise variant of the classic marble relief, with a depth of only a few millimetres. Although he takes inspiration from classical techniques, a particular characteristic of Rockenschaub’s practice is his advanced concept of production through his appropriation of modern technologies. He is one of the first artists to make use of a formal vocabulary that includes computer-generated graphics.

Info: Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery, Ely House, 37 Dover Street, London, Duration: 2/4-11/5/19, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, https://ropac.net