In her solo exhibition Drawing something under itself, Fiona Connor (b. 1981 in Auckland, New Zealand, lives and works in Los Angeles, USA) explores the materiality and symbolism of repetition and divergence. While the tension between reiteration and variation lies at the heart of her work, it is also fundamental to every pedagogical situation: processes, methods, and practices are studied, learned, and repeatedly rehearsed, and yet every subsequent application creates a new variant – never identical and always different, finding its own forms, paths, and perspectives.
Connor’s sculptural practice has been based on the detailed reproduction of found, discarded objects and objects still in use, as well as architectural fragments, with her attention repeatedly drawn toward the faithful replication of patina, wear and tear. Her works are underpinned by a deep sense of empathy that, ultimately, is less interested in technical perfection than in the process of physically reenacting and comprehending the material actions, labor, and social and material histories invested within an object. This is led by a process of learning and precise material study – a sort of reverse engineering in which the artist deconstructs an object, breaking it down to its individual materials and components. Connor’s practice, in that sense, is intrinsically engaged with questions of learning. This always involves collaborating with others – builders, foundry workers, studio assistants – and emphasizes processes of material and contextual translation as an essential part of her work.
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Lastly, the exhibition draws upon the artist’s own family archive. Her father, Bruce Connor, visited apprenticeship schools and construction sites in North Rhine-Westphalia in the 1950s as a foreman on a Cubitt Travel Prize, in order to study the new organizational and structural processes used here during postwar reconstruction. The exhibition at the Kunstverein picks up, returns to, and expands this personal archive.
Drawing something under itself is Fiona Connor’s first institutional solo show in Germany. During the duration of the exhibition, visitors and students will be invited to participate in various spontaneous events and educational workshops in the foyer, where Connor has also installed a print workshop that is free to use for all visitors, including a newly created typeface by the artist that distills found characters from the archive and immediate surroundings of the Kunstverein.
Curated by Kathrin Bentele
Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen
Dusseldorf, Germany
