EMILIA NEUMANN
Medusa Piercing

Exhibition: Nov. 24 - Dec. 15, 2018 - Sat. 12-6 pm and by appointment
Opening: Friday November 23, 6-10 pm
Address: Potsdamer Straße 118, 10785 Berlin, (in the backyard)


Exercises in Interpretation
A prose ode to Raymond Queneau

1. Notation
Medusa Piercing
A solo show, at Studio Picknick, the final exhibition for 2018. Frankfurt based artist, Emilia Neumann. A site- specific installation, Medusa Piercing, composed of four sculptural works, entitled Medusa Piercing, Medusa Piercing, ursomma and altsomma. The sculptures observe and dictate spatial awareness in their installation, hanging from the ceiling and the wall, engulfing the space, consciously prescribing visitors’ movement. The sculptures present exercises in versatility, in perception, differing in size, form and materiality, dimensions variable. The sculptures reflexively explore their own autonomy, disembody our institutionalised mode of visual perception, and invert semiotics.

2. Precision
Medusa Piercing
1 solo show, Medusa Piercing, at Studio Picknick, 40 m², Berlin, by 1 artist, Emilia Neumann, Frankfurt based, female sex, born 1985. The 1 sculptural installation is composed of 4 sculptures, 2 series. The 1st series encompasses 2 sculptures, the 1st, 1,30 m long, 0,88 m wide, 0,65 m high, the 2nd, 1,30 m long, 0,88 m wide, 0,70 m high. These 2 sculptures hang almost centrally in the space, the 1st, 1,12 m from the ceiling, 0,37 m from the floor, 1,14 m from wall 1, 4,55 m from wall 2, 0,80 m from wall 3, 4,77 m from the entrance, the 2nd, 0,93 m from the ceiling, 0,43 m from the floor, 1,28 m from wall 1, 2,59 m from wall 2, 1,02 m from wall 3, 6,64 m from the entrance. The distance between the 2 sculptures is 0,79 m. The 2 sculptures are suspended by 2 almost identical structures, consisting of 4 wire ropes, 3,09-3,40 m long, 6 mm thick, 2 sheets of PVC, 1,10-1,25 m long, 0,30 m wide, 3 mm thick, and 20 metal lug caps, each with a diameter of 23 mm. The 40 lug caps are equally divided, 10 lug caps per PVC sheet, 5 at each end, at a distance of 40 mm. The 2nd series consists of another set of 2 sculptures, the 1st, 0,65 m long, 0,75 m wide, 0,22 m high, the 2nd, 0,95 m long, 0,60 m wide, 0,26 m high. These 2 sculptures hang on 2 walls, the 1st on wall 1, at a distance of 7,56 m to the right, 2,01 m to the left, 1,30 m to the floor, 2,03 m to the ceiling, the 2nd on wall 3, at a distance of 7,95 m to the right, 1,73 m to the left, 1,44 m to the floor, 1,60 m to the ceiling. The 1 exhibition is accompanied by 1 text, fragmented into 11 Exercises in Interpretation.

3. International Art English
Medusa Piercing
The subtly manipulative juxtaposition of the elements comprising the site-specific installation manifest themselves as sculptural works. Interrogating space with their physical autonomy and material ambiguity, Medusa Piercing subsequently penetrates visitors’ conventional perceptions of artwork, gallery space, and their own metaphysical position within this subjective dialogue continuum. Intuitively constructed and decisively positioned, the sculptures purposefully disguise any recognisable or fabricated mode of production. As such, the pieces enact an imaginative cartography of our mediated world and reveal themselves in refined semeiotics. Their artistically rendered materiality rejects solidity, collinearity and neutrality. It rather preserves a dialectic state in space and an anachronistic process in time: any common notion of before, now, and after, in parallel with past, present and future are indecipherably imposed and decomposed. Enquiring via the conduit of a perceptively versatile gaze, both objects and visitors are consequentially subjected to a mutually imposed renegotiation of their own memories and histories. The sculptures are reflexively transformed into personified and objectified antagonists through their very own act of objectification and antagonisation by those upon whom this initial objectification and antagonism is projected. Studio Picknick overflows with inanimate and living protagonists of these newly constructed antagonistic conditions.

4. Synchesis
Piercing Medusa
The elements’ manipulative juxtaposition subtly of the comprising the site-specific installation sculptural works manifest themselves as. Space with their interrogating autonomy, Medusa Piercing physical material visitors’, gallery space, conventional and ambiguity subsequently penetrates perceptions metaphysical of artwork and within this subjective their own position dialogue continuum. The sculptures purposefully any mode of recognisable disguise or fabricated production, intuitively positioned constructed and decisively. Such as, enact an of our reveal mediated world imaginative cartography and themselves in refined semeiotics the pieces. Their rendered artistically materiality rejects solidity, and neutrality collinearity. It in space in time rather a dialectic preserves state and an process anachronistic: of before, now, and after, any common notion in parallel with are indecipherably imposed past, present and future and decomposed. Both are consequentially objects and visitors subject to, enquiring via perceptively versatile the conduit of a gaze, a mutually of their own memories imposed renegotiation and histories. The transformed into sculptures are reflexively personified and antagonists those upon objectified through act of objectification and their very own antagonisation by whom this initial antagonism is projected objectification and. Overflows with antagonistic inanimate Studio Picknick and living these newly constructed protagonists of conditions.

5. Double Entry
Emilia Neumann’s exhibition and Medusa Piercing
The subtly manipulative juxtaposition of the elements and the both sculptural and painterly objects comprising the site-specific installation and permeating the exhibition space manifest themselves as sculptural works and refuse their merely sculptural being. Interrogating space and accentuating their spacial limitations with their physical autonomy and material ambiguity and their contentual dependence and contextual relations, Medusa Piercing subsequently penetrates visitors’ conventional perceptions of artwork and the exhibition probes any stereotypic consciousness of everyday objects, gallery space and institutional frameworks, and their own metaphysical position and their own secular existence within this subjective dialogue continuum and in relation to their objective mysteriousness. Intuitively constructed and decisively positioned and industrially manufactured and artistically sculpted, the sculptures purposefully disguise and their thingness intentionally exposes any recognisable or fabricated mode of production and their own transcendent referentiality. As such and as this, the pieces enact an imaginative cartography and the sculptural manifestations expose a common artificial geography of our mediated world and our inhabited environment and reveal themselves in refined semeiotics and hide themselves in a suspicious manner. Their artistically rendered materiality and their fabricated reconstruction rejects solidity, collinearity and neutrality and and oscillates between flexibility, ephemerality and determination. It rather preserves and it rather restores a dialectic state in space and a spatial double existence and an anachronistic process in time and an amaranthine state: any common notion of before, now, and after, in parallel with past, present and future and any uncommon concept of time and space are indecipherably imposed and decomposed and are physically and abstractly encoded. Enquiring via the conduit of a perceptively versatile gaze and questioning through a both objective and subjective glance, both objects and visitors and both sculptures and spectators are consequentially subject to and politely asked to consider a mutually imposed renegotiation of their own memories and histories and a self-reflective mode of revising cultural dogmas. The sculptures and the spatial contextualisations are reflexively transformed into personified and objectified antagonists and are directly asked to participate through their very own act of objectification and antagonisation and through their own fantastic and fictional potential by those upon whom this initial objectification and antagonism is projected and by those who are desperately trying to stay in denial. Studio Picknick and the artistically created moment overflows with inanimate and living protagonists and is inhabited by autonomous and likewise blank-faced creatures of these newly constructed antagonistic conditions and of our bequeathed semiotics.

6. Tactile
Soft Penetration
The solid, cool mass of wilfully unidentifiable material reveals a perceptible softness through its smooth surface. As a palpably processed matter, it softly clings to its now subverted, unidentifiable physical construct. A structure rendered malleable by the very matter that now serves to reembody it. Irregular movement of material in varying physical states bares unevenness of structure. Here and there, the alleged utopic smoothness is fissured. Crevices, cavities and wrinkles spawn open-pored irregularities. Different states of tactility experience initial encounters and coalesce. Rills develop, contouring the surface in a traversal of regularity and irregularity. Again, a softly repeating contrasted top becomes noticeable, fringed by an eroded and open edged seam. A synthesis between innumerable crusty cracks and gentle waves besieges any attempt at defining a single plane of material or tactile existence.




7. Visual
Melting Reflection
An abstract, marble-like structure permeates the space. Through its indefinable form it alludes to the partially organic and partially inorganic nature of its own production and existence as a sculpture. The gradient of the melting colour fields sensitively contrasts the solid heaviness of the objects. The cornucopia of colour unmasks the innate oxymoronic nature of material. Through colour soft is revealed within hard. Colour questions and interrogates the physical nature of material. Colour does not alter states of matter but elucidates how our perception of material is shaded. A deep-sea blue, almost black, ascends into a light blue, into a turquoise, into a green. Pink moments evaporate into rose-coloured stretches and diminish into a neutral grey. From time to time, the sensitive gradients are disturbed by a corrosive explosions of dark particles. The hand-rendered sheen of the polished material then works in opposition to partially eliminate colour and eclipse the sculpture’s materiality, only to reveal it further through heightened colour and surface contrast. Punctured air bubbles disturb the shimmering reflection and open up a landscape of tiny, enchanting craters that bear the true multiplicity of material.

8. The Subjective Side
Meteorites’ Invasion
Look with all your eyes. Inward and out. It is as if meteorites have fallen out of the sky, deaccelerating to gently to hover above the earth’s surface in contemplation. Meteorites belonging to a different existence. An existence most certainly not burdened by humankind. An existence not composed of the layers of the planet humans call earth. No oceanic crust, no continental crust, no litosphere, no asthenosphere, no upper mantle, no lower mantle, no outer core and no inner core. The meteorites serve as material witnesses and product of something difficult to fathom. Something not ruled by common concepts of time and space, something that doesn’t follow the human logic of categorisation and, most certainly, doesn’t meet any defined rhetoric of material perception.

9. Metaphorical
Medusa Piercing
A Medusa Piercing (or philtrum) is a puncture above the upper lip. It is centred on the groove under the nasal septum. Appropriating its name from the infamous figure of Greek mythology, a Medusa Piercing describes a pop cultural phenomena and a form of body modification. Although several myths about Medusa’s life and death are prevalent, she is primarily known as one of the three Gorgon sisters. Most sources describe her as a winged human female with living venomous snakes in place of hair. Snakes who had the ability to turn those who gazed upon her face to stone. After her beheading, her head was used as a weapon to turn onlookers to stone. Out of the three sisters, Medusa was the only mortal being.

10. Logical Analysis
Plaster.
Pigment.
Walnuts.
Rust.
Rope.
Steel.
Lug caps.
PVC sheets.
Hooks.
Screws.
Nails.

11. Interjections
Ping Pau!
Oh! wow! hmm! eh! well! dear! hey! ahh! yeah! yoo-hoo! psst! pooh. pooh. pooh. pau! bling! bling! bling! jeez! phew! right! zing! ooh-la-la! ahh! ahh!



Emilia Neumann (*1985) lives and works in Frankfurt/Main, Germany. From 2006 to 2013, she studied at the Academy of Arts and Design Offenbach with professors Wolfgang Luy and Georg Hüter. In her sculptures and sculptural installations, Emilia explores the dialectical versatility of her material: By intervening in their relationship, she transforms both object and subject into accomplices of her fragile and antagonistic conditions.



Text: Hendrike Nagel Copy Editing: Sarah Crowe