Ruth Biller
Bewegung und Erinnerung
Chiaroscuro 2021
Anna Laudel Düsseldorf presents the solo exhibition “Chiaroscuro” by the Berlin artist Ruth Biller during the summer months. The exhibition title “Chiaroscuro” refers to the stylistic device of chiaroscuro painting developed in the Baroque period, with which bodies, gestures and objects are illuminated by strong contrasts. In her paintings, Ruth Biller uses Baroque pictorial motifs and spatial concepts that aim to dissolve the boundaries of the material-spatial world. The paintings consist of both real and painted parts. By separating and reassembling the canvas, by repeating motifs, the impression of individual cinematic images is created. They recall the principle of the domino game and combine different perspectives into a whole. Through the historical background of her pictorial motifs, the depiction of the staged, masked and disguised human being, the artist creates an arc of tension with today’s everyday culture and deals intensively with current themes such as “fake” and disinformation. “It is about exposing concepts of space as centres of human feeling and memory to current concerns (gentrification, environmental pollution) through an organic understanding,” says the artist. Ruth Biller freely translates processes such as enlargement, colour filtering, negative-positive effects and form-alienating lighting into painting. In doing so, she invents movement in the process of creation, seeks to lend duration to the gaze composed of different temporal planes, which is always only a moment in time, and combines raw aspects of realism with the diversity of the Baroque. In her ‘Chiaroscuro’ series, the artist works primarily with traditional painting materials such as oil, gouache and watercolours. Thus she experiments with layering and glazing, places silver pigment on a dark ground, creates flotsam of golden tones. (Lostandfound, 2021)
Bilderwanderungen 2020
Galerie im Schlosspavillion, München-Ismaning : „Bei jedem Werk, daß ich beginne, begebe ich mich auf eine Wanderung. Da sind Berge und Täler, Euphorie und Erschöpfung. Was ich nicht vorhersehe, das ist das Ziel der Wanderung. Aber wenn ein Bild fertig ist, dann weiß ich, dass ich angekommen bin.“ Ruth Biller 2019 „Bilderfahrzeuge“ ist ein Begriff, den der deutsche Kunsthistoriker Aby Warburg (1866-1929) geprägt hat. Er steht im Zusammenhang mit einem Konzept, das für den Kulturwissenschaftler von zentraler Bedeutung war, verfolgte er doch, unter anderem, das Ziel, Kontinuitäten zwischen Antike und Renaissance aufzuzeigen – Kontinuitäten, die er materialisiert sah in der ‚Bilderwanderung’. (Zitat) Die Schauplätze der Kunst sind weder bewegungslos noch neu: wandernde Bilder durchziehen das 20. Jahrhundert und beleuchten einen anderen Blick auf die Kunst der Moderne. Als »deplatzierte Bilder« sind sie zugleich ein Symptom der Gegenwart.
And still spring is coming 2020
My stay as Artist in Residence in Ayvalik, Maison de Barbara took place under the influence of COVID-19 events. Since I was in a special environment and not at home, I was very intensely aware of what it means not to know what can happen in the very near future. I was prepared to work in a concentrated manner and I was very focused. Since I was making a diary in pictures, I had the idea to put these special circumstances into film. I hadn't planned that before. I sat in front of the camera and described my situation. I was also affected by the flight stop. I mainly worked on my paintings. In my film, I reflected on what social changes are necessary, also and especially in view of the human disasters on the European-Asian border. In view of the suffering of many people, especially in the cold of March, April near Lesvos, I wish for peace and more humanity. My painting and my film has the title: "And still it will be spring". Nature moves in the rhythm of becoming and passing away, it copes with the pandemic through renewal.. My concept uses it.
Vision und Wanderschaft - Arbeiten auf Papier 2017-2021
