Vanessa Henn Same Same

by Schimpf, Simone; Christofori, Ralf

• ISBN13: 9783969121740
• ISBN10: 3969121744
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2024-03-29
• Publisher: DCV

Summary

Vanessa Henn’ s (b. Stuttgart, 1970; lives and works in Berlin) objects and installations blend formal reduction with playful comedy. The handrails she makes out of a wide variety of materials run along walls, project into rooms, trace spirals, mark lines or arcs, and often solicit our active engagement. Besides banisters, her oeuvre, which straddles the line between architecture and sculpture, also comprises bridges, stairs, and fences. All her creations are energized by the tension between the static work of art and its dynamic environment, which the artist resolves by integrating her works into the goings-on of everyday life. A guardrail that runs perpendicular to a flight of stairs or abruptly ends in the ceiling or floor is relieved of its function; rather than helping us go where we are going, it is a companion who invites us on a stroll into the imaginary and uncertain. And that is what makes Vanessa Henn’ s art so alluring. Vanessa Henn studied sculpture at the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart (1992– 2001) and at Edinburgh College of Art (1995– 1996) and completed a Master of Fine Art at the y of Canterbury School of Fine Art in Christchurch, New Zealand (1999– 2000).

Author Biography

Simone Schimpf holds a doctorate in art history and is the director of the Neues Museum Nuremberg. She also heads the Foundation for Concrete Art and Design and has been Deputy Director of the Alf Lechner Foundation in Ingolstadt since 2017. From 2006 to 2013, she worked as a curator for art after 1945 at the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart and as deputy director of the museum. Ralf Christofori studied art history and philosophy in Heidelberg and completed his doctorate in 2003 on "Representation models in contemporary photography". From 1998 to 2000, he worked as a research assistant at the Wü rttembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart. Since then he has worked as a journalist and art critic for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the Tagesspiegel, Berlin, as well as for the art magazines Frieze, Kunst-Bulletin, Kunstforum International and Monopol. Ralf Christofori is also the author of numerous catalogs and essays on contemporary art and culture.