Gregor Hildebrandt: Behind my back, In front of my eyes

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Gregor Hildebrandt’s signature media are cassette tape and vinyl, which he collages and assembles into apparently minimalist yet latently romantic paintings, sculptures, and installations. Resting in silence behind the glossy surface of his analog aesthetics, which verges on black and white monochrome, music and cinema haunt his practice. Whether pictorial or sculptural, all of his works contain prerecorded materials, which he references in the titles. These pop-cultural sources, usually a single song, are meant to trigger both collective and personal memories.

On view in the show will be new works from his painting series, created with his distinctive rip-off technique (he adheres and presses the coated side of magnetic tapes onto a canvas in a painterly gesture, then removes the plastic films of the tapes strip by strip, leaving leftovers of the coating on the canvas. The strips are then applied onto a second canvas, creating two paintings that are positive and negatives parts of the same motif.) Hildebrandt’s signature monochrome works will be featured, along with a color series that he recently experimented with. Also exhibited will be works from his cassette case shelf and vinyl column series.

ABOUT THE ARTIST / ORGANISER

Gregor Hildebrandt’s signature media are cassette tape and vinyl, which he collages and assembles into apparently minimalist yet latently romantic paintings, sculptures, and installations. Resting in silence behind the glossy surface of his analog aesthetics, which verges on black and white monochrome, music and cinema haunt his practice. Whether pictorial or sculptural, all of his works contain prerecorded materials, which he references in the titles. These pop-cultural sources, usually a single song, are meant to trigger both collective and personal memories. Like analog storage media, his distinctive rip-off technique is a metaphor for the mnestic process itself: it consists in rubbing magnetic coating against double-sided adhesive tape stuck on canvas to trace intricate and elusive powdery patterns. Further relating to architectural Gesamtkunstwerk, Hildebrandt’s monumental sonic barriers made of stacked, bowl-shaped records and his sensual wall curtains made of unreeled tapes create paths for the visitors of his shows.