| The
door fillings suggest folding doors, one wants to give wings dreams
which entice for lift-up. Also one associates Pegasus, the winged
fantasy horse if the muses. The hemp used by the car industry has
mutated to 'Werkstoffkastraten' (phrase by Ch.C.; meaning that
hemp is not used in its full potential here but rather only in regards
of its tensile and pressure strength). The robustness and
tensile strength
of this widely useable natural fibre. Audi and other car manufacturers
advertise with this economical and ecological responsible compnay
politic. They follow in Henry Fords footsteps who introduced already
1938 "the car which has grown in a field"* a prototype that had a
synthetic material body made of hemp and other fibres, the
motor run on plant oil. But the hemp plant also fascinates by its double gender. The plants are either female or male. "Male plantes are responsible for sexuell energy only"** whilst female plants supply with strong and better fibres. "Only the female plants can produce alcaloide substances like marihuana, which in Indian means the imprisoning herb or Arabic: Haschisch, which means miracle of exchange. Though male plants can be consumed they do not induce any effect"***. Similar to drug use in a speed trance in a car episodes become able to be experienced, endorphines are relea- sed which lift us beyond all limits. The wish for movement through space and tiem, the conquest of space of time, an old dream of human beings is suggested. The driver grows one with the metal body of the car and changes into a centaur: he feels unhurtable and immortal in another dimension. Trance of speed, experience of limitation and stepping beyond borders, limitlessness. But also the dreams and the realization of small escapes connect themselves with the car, the drug, the promise of happiness on wheels. But back to the exhibition. The motif of the door is being taken up again as icon and metaphor on the left wall of EINSTELLUNGSRAUM in a series of prints. Sensibly and intelligently the |
artist refers the
wall into her
conception. With the help of modern tools the
change from one medium to the other is carred out: object to picture.
7 boards decorate the
wall like a frieze. The artist uses this form for the narrative
structure of the work. A large distinguished panel introduces into the
subject. She presents 6 car doors which in their design remind of the
famous middleaged bronze doors of the churches like the one at the Dom
zu Hildesheim (cathedral in Hildesheim, Germany) or - to name the
most famous example - Ghiberti's paradise door at the Baptisterium in
Florence /Italy. This one gots its name amongst other reasons by Michelangelo
saying that this masterwork would be worthy to decorate
the entrance to the paradise. In the panels biblical storries are
told. But Christine Cartstens names her works ironically as
'Moritatentafeln' (boards of bloodcurdling ballads). They also tell a
story: the ages old timelessly valuable one of adam and eve, of love
and death. The protagonists are introduced in the shape of a red and
blue cocktail stick. The yellow-hammer on the branch seams to
accompany the age-old tune. The other 6
boards explicitly present the subject in which the snake shaped
cocktail sticks now dance a wilde pas de deux with all ups and downs of
the drama. The artist shows the lyrical story on millimeter paper,
which she already found like that with the winglike figure on it. She
took up the given motif and used the originality of the
millimeter paper, which made clear the limitation, the contrast,
the ambivalence towards the story, blatantly tangible and
visible even more. She pulls
all media's
stop and playfully explores
all technics in all directions. The borders between the genres and
technics become blurred and disolve. She is carrying
out a puzzle
between art and reality which
* Henry Ford: "Das Auto, das auf dem
Acker wŠchst", _________ from: Mathias Broeckers: Cannabis. Aarau 2002, pg.101. ** Mathias Broeckers: Cannabis. Aarau 2002, pg.113. *** Mona Klerings / Ingo Schmaal: Im Rausch mit der Natur. Naturdrogen, (In trance with nature. Natural drogs), Hamburg 2002, pg. 88f. |
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