Andrea Loefke's Key Artworks
Brooklyn-Based German Artist Discusses Her Work and Practice
German-born artist Andrea Loefke lives and works in Brooklyn, New York – constructing conglomerates of material and form, working from innumerable materials, both decorative and everyday. These supplies overflow from the categorized shelves and bins of her studio. In fabricating these often vivid multiform assemblages, Loefke employs a myriad of techniques expressing ambiguous thoughts and sensations. These fairy-like worlds are complex structures incorporating multiple objects, colours and textures, resulting in what could be described as playful and mysterious landscapes, enticing the viewer into visual narrative journeys.
Part Three.
PB: Your last work Das muss gefeiert werden! Mit Krokant, Kandiszucker, Kremhuetchen und Konfekt (Let Us Celebrate! With Brittle Rock Candy, Pastry And Confection!) seemed to me at first viewing - a slight departure, reminding me of the Hirst sculpture; Let's Eat Outdoors Today, in which a scene is set within a vitrine, of the devastated remains of a barbecue. The veneer of a happy and innocent gathering subverted by the insinuation of something sinister. Your work balances a similar tension – where your desire to create a ‘liberating sensation’ expresses the human ability to also imagine the disturbing without prohibition. This work also had a very conscious narrative; almost a social comment on a hidden danger lying beneath the facade – a clearer linear narrative than earlier works perhaps?
AL: The title, with a listing of old-fashioned German goodies, alludes to the idea of party, maybe a children’s birthday, a cheerful get-together. The white poles with colorful flags and the crowd of playful artifacts, which are spread out across the whole room, gives us an impression of just witnessing a lively and joyous event. It feels like coming in on a party and finding all the traces but no inhabitants.
The scenario is very colorful, childlike and playful, maybe a little chaotic, and has a clear sense of movement/ process/ life – an animated scenario. The installation fills the whole space; the confined room painted all in white (walls, ceiling, floor), and entering it directly through a door from the street, clearly invites the viewer to dip into and to become part of this world the moment one passes into it. Having arrived inside one is asked to participate and examine.
When one looks closer the jollity is at once broken: popsicles with sharp red tips, medical spatulas lie next to pieces of cake and candy bars and a dark red band-aid cross. Little marshmallows can be mistaken as pills, spills of water and red fluids accumulate, and the moving, motley flags are enchained with tight strings of yarn, meeting the hard surface with an aggressive splash of red liquid.
The narrative here might be more linear than some earlier works, even though the single elements in this installation are still ambiguous, often showing its link to the fantasy world. “A social comment on a hidden danger lying beneath the facade”… I like this. I am very much interested in the melting and confrontation of contraries, looking behind the facade, discussing the many facets of life – the “two sides of a story”.
But back to your earlier question: Lets recall an earlier piece concerning your comment of “a clearer linear narrative. My last installation at PH Gallery in New York “Oh do let me help to undo it” might have been less self-explanatory. As a matter of fact this exhibition starts a discussion that asks "to what extent does the artist rely on his or her audience to do the work of mentally joining the disparate components?" (Jonathan Goodman, Sculpture Magazine, Dec. 2006) Well, I feel it is important to leave space for the viewer but enough has to be given to start the experience and process. This is of course always a fine line and when managed well will heighten the viewer’s sensation.
Earlier and later parts of this conversation are also posted on Suite 101.
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