Birgit Werres: samples for pieces – maybe Kienbaum Artists’ Books 2019

Industrially prefabricated objects dominate works by Birgit Werres, yet they enter into heterogeneous combinations with additional elements made by the artist. Birgit Werres finds her materials in warehouses and at industrial production sites, where she encounters the things that arouse her aesthetic interest, which has been fine-tuned for many years. She initially studied under Tony Cragg, before graduating from Irmin Kamp’s class. Her rededication of profane figurativeness is carried out in sequences, stratifications, or composite materials. In such works, the artist continues to expand on formal characteristics such as volume, texture, and structure. The striking intrinsic color of the materials tends to be of great significance. In contrast to the monumental corporeality of the objects, it additionally obscures the origin, function, and properties of the material. Her unconventional sculptures and installations are quite often mentioned in reference to works by Robert Smithson, Barry Le Va, Richard Artschwager, and Richard Serra. 

Birgit Werres, born 1962, lives in Dusseldorf and teaches Creative Design at the University of Cologne. She studied with Tony Cragg in Dusseldorf and never quit collecting and sampling industrial prefabricated objects. Her sculptures are often mentioned in reference to works by Robert Smithson, Barry Le Va, Richard Artschwager, and Richard Serra: artists all exhibited by Rolf Ricken gallery where Brigit Werres started her own exhibition practice in 1990.