Michaela Habelitz, Berlin
The artist Michaela Habelitz developed an installation in situ for the simple exhibition cube by the architects Nitz-Prasch-Sigl-Tschoban-Voss. The work is floating in space and consists of 12 satined, light storing acrylic panes. It receives its graphic texture through a find made in south Manhattan, which the artist had salvaged in 2002; hundreds of commemorative lights that show an embossed buddhist divinity in a mandorla shape. The lights, negligently thrown away, show clear signs of use. Each single commemorative light is covered by a acrylic slice, which reads a Chinese name in red. The utilization of found materials, its serial use and the contention with its spiritual aura belong to the working principles of the artist, who ennobles objects of everyday life to art objects. Through a grinding procedure in the plastic workshop, the metal drawing of the buddhas was transposed onto the acryl. The arrangement of the picture objects fits the exhibition space. In its clarity and rationality, it forms a counter pole both to the transcendental moment and to the trashy appearance of the commemorative lights. The itself illuminating installation creates a synthesis with the space, which appears to be a light storage, by courtesy of the object.
Speakers at the opening: Nicola Kuhn, art critic, Berlin
Organization: Felsenstein Kulturmanagement
