DAS INSTITUT

This exhibition is currently being shown at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery, and is the first major show comprising work by Kerstin Brätsch and Adele Röder in a UK public institution.They have worked collaboratively as DAS INSTITUT since 2007, and come from New York and London respectively.The exhibition presents pieces both their collaboration, as well as their own individual practices.

At the time of viewing this exhibition, I had just seen the Hilda af Klint show at the Serpentine. So didn’t know quite what to expect, however was pleasantly surprised! The  work presented by both artists in the show attempts to communicate the inexpressible but intuitive, irrational element of human experience and relationships.Through the works of Brätsch it is evident in the way, she uses painting to question how the body can be expressed – psychologically, physically and socially. Meanwhile Röder, searches for basic symbolic forms to create a non-verbal language utilising clothing, posture and light.

I really enjoyed the exhibition, because it was the complete opposite to the work of af Klint, while sharing the same nature of inexplicability.

DAS INSTITUT  primarily focuses on the transformative properties and effects of light on bodies and spaces; and  it was demonstrated with the idea of their own physical presence with the visibility of silhouettes and photographs – which are incorporated into some of the works, such as “Am Sonntag Series” (2014) and “Dark Codex” (2015).

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Hilda af Klint: Painting the Unseen

Last week, I spent a full day in Central London attempting to take  in  the latest exhibitions. Among one of my first visits, was to the Serpentine Gallery to view the work of Swedish artist Hilda af Klint (1862-1944).

Pre-dating the first purely abstract paintings by Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich and Piet Mondrian; af Klint’s work was not publicly seen until 1986. Now regarded as a pioneer of abstract art, the sequential nature of her work has been highlighted here.

I found the context of the exhibition really fascinating, as af Klint was known to paint the “hidden worlds” within nature, science and the spiritual realm.The Serpentine exhibition focused primarily on af Klint’s body of work, “The Paintings for the Temple” (1906-15), which consists of 193 predominantly abstract paintings in various series and subgroups,  charting the influence of science and religion – From the discovery of electromagnetic waves, to the spiritual teachings of anthroposophist Rudolf Steiner (af Klint’s mentor). His presence in her life influenced her resultant work in the depictorial form of symbols and motifs, such as shells, snakes, lillies and crosses – from his spiritual movement.

Fearing that the context of her work would be gravely misunderstood, af Klint stipulated that the work should be kept out of the public eye for 20 years after her death. Hence many of the works comprised within this exhibition have never been seen before in the UK. The first public exhibition of her works was in 1986, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

What I found interesting with af Klint’s work was the abandonment of convention and traditional themes of landscapes, portraiture, and botanical drawings, which she would have acquired with her artistic training from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm (1882-87). She favoured the spiritual and occult worlds, and joined privately four other female artists to form a group called “The Five”. They conducted seances to encounter what they believed were spirits who wished to communicate via pictures. This led to experiments with automatic writing and drawing, which pre-dated the Surrealists by several decades; and created a legacy for the 20th Century in modern art.

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