katie Holten: 2010
VAN HORN, Düsseldorf, Germany
June 11 - July 17, 2010
Katie Holten, installation view, solo show, VAN HORN, Düsseldorf.
2010
VAN HORN is pleased to announce "2010" its third solo exhibition with Katie Holten.
At the root of Holten’s practice is a love of drawing. In "2010" Holten presents a series of new drawings that deepen her curiosity for the conditions by which specific natural materials, such as twigs, stones and fossils, both emerge from and return to culture.
"2010" grows out of Holten’s recent discussions with historians, economists, geophysicists, musicians, botanists, ecologists, teachers, and architects during her exploration of the ecosystem in the South Bronx, NY for her acclaimed Tree Museum (2009-2010).
Katie Holten, installation view, solo show, VAN HORN, Düsseldorf.
Cosmic turquoise
The gallery walls will be painted the ‘average color of the universe’ (as calculated by astrophysicists at Johns Hopkins). The first and ‘incorrect’ version is popularly called Cosmic Turquoise. The painted walls will serve as the ‘ground’ on which the drawing installation will take form.
"In the recent work The Golden Bough Katie Holten comes to terms with the relativity of science, showing us ‘Cosmic Latte’ and ‘Cosmic Turquoise’, the average color of the universe. Imagination, science and nature intertwine in a dialogue intended to reactivate dulled senses." - Ilaria Gianni, 2010.
Katie Holten, installation view, solo show, VAN HORN, Düsseldorf.
readymade narratives
In these new works Holten takes pages from The Golden Bough (Frazer, 1953), On Aggression (Lorenz, 1963) and Civilized Man’s Eight Deadly Sins (Lorenz, 1973) and uses them as both a surface for drawing on and as material for making drawn sculptures.
Holten uses these seminal texts as ‘readymade’ narratives – the printed words on the pages tell the story of man’s fascination with, control of, and domination over nature – while Holten’s drawings depict man-made objects, from pre-historic stone tools to Cumulus clouds created from smog and contrails. These drawings continue Holten’s ongoing meditation on the inextricable link between man and nature in the age of the Anthropocene. The ecological is now entwined with the economical.
"2010" explores where we are coming from, where we are at now and where we are going, or could be going.