Press Release: Banal they may well seem, these everyday motifs transposed into
paintingsalways on a scale of 1:1—by the Swiss artist Christoph
Hänsli, and yet the context to which he draws our attention with this
painterly conversion is consistently profound. After exploring the
undertakings of human beings in their attempt to give life a meaning,
Hänsli, in recent years, has turned his attention to our constant
efforts to defy our vulnerability and helplessness.
The artist initiated these enquiries with two large-scale projects. In 2015 he began work on Der Generator
(The Generator), drawing us into the heart of the Saint-Gotthard
Massif where the Swiss artillery built a sprawling fortress during
World War II. Hänsli produced a life-size depiction of the control
panel that operated the fortress’ energy supply. Almost eight meters
long, Der Generator features an entire arsenal of switches,
regulators and lamps. They symbolize both the manageable control
that can be gained through technology and the potential for a total
loss of command—thus making this painting a double-portrait of
confidence and fear.
The inspiration for Hänsli’s next big project, Deponie
(Disposal site, 2015—16) was equally subterraneous. His quest for
systems of order led the artist to the landfill at Herfa-Neurode in
the German state of Hesse, the world’s largest underground repository of hazardous waste.
In addition to over two million metric tons of discharge containing
mercury or arsenic, a “sample room” displays hundreds of tiny amounts
of poisonous chemicals from all over the world—in innocent looking
and neatly labeled glass jars that closely resemble the ones we use for
our kitchen spices. Hänsli has transposed 33 of these samples into
small paintings, tidily arranged by categories of pollutant. They
present themselves as a little periodic table in pastel colors of
the side products of civilization we prefer to forget.
The following year, Hänsli consigned a series of six medicine cabinets to canvas and gave them the telltale title Festungen
(Fortresses, 2017). Many of the labels are illegible and the little
boxes and containers dissolve into an abstract grid. What the Festungen
really conceal thus remains diffuse: the pills for headaches and hay
fever can hardly be distinguished from the drugs for depression and
cancer. Their very existence implies security and satisfies our need
to be protected. Whether intended by the artist or not, each of these
medical chests is also a highly intimate, if somewhat blurred,
portrait of its owner.
Hänsli’s inquiry into our multifaceted and at times
absurd desire for safety is expanded by 100 paintings of little
screws, most of them rusty and twisted, picked up by the artist on the
streets of his home town Zurich or during trips to New York, Berlin,
Milan, and elsewhere (Verloren, Lost, 2013—14). It was not
just the easily overlooked beauty of these little objects that
fascinated him. It was above all the idea that every single one of
these screws, however tiny, once performed a function, and that its
absence from this important place poses a latent security risk.
The most recent work in the exhibition concludes
Hänsli’s research into our defense mechanisms and adds a striking
splash of color. Bald (Soon, 2018) shows a signal red
button intriguing in its ambivalence. The button might equally
trigger a destructive action or a life-saving measure. As so often,
interpretation is left to the viewer—Hänsli simply jogs our thoughts
with his painterly precision and subtle humor.
Galerie Judin.
