1998 - Solo Exhibition Gallery Hoechhuus Kuesnacht

5. June - 28. June 1998

WANDOBJEKTE
METALL UND PLEXIGLAS
Exhibition Gallery Hoechhuus
Seestrasse 123
8708 Kuesnacht

HAPPY MOMENTS – OR THE UNPREDICTABLE ORDER OF OBJECTS

Christian Rentsch, freelance journalist

5. June - 28. June 1998 Hard and soft, warm and cold, light and heavy, Ursula Gerber-Senger, an artist from Männedorf, plays mischievously with contrasts, opposites and irregularities. Her work comprising of  woven metal, can be seen from the 5th of June in the Gallery Höchhuus. Her objects, which she hangs on the wall, are not in the least provocative instead they radiate peaceful colour tones with clear forms and symmetrical figures directly connected to constructive art. In a world where everything seems to be getting noisier and louder we are all the more interested to explore the opposite and this is to be found in Ursula Gerber-Senger’s  work. In the quiet simplicity of her work it’s the small details that awake our interest. The stern geometrical forms are partly diffused and the balance takes on it’s own playful freedom. Ursula discards the logic order of things and leaves space for more spontaneous surprises. It would appear that she has playfully snatched the colourful areas in full flight and held them down firmly with silver thread. Hence capturing a happy moment.  

EXUBERANT TEXTILE BUNDLES

Ursula Gerber-Senger was born in 1958 and became known in the 80ies with her large textile compositions. These twisted and turned woven lined puzzle concepts remind one of Moorish or Chinese patterns. In the 90ies she discovered material that fascinated her, opening up whole new dimensions for her artistic creations. Finely woven metal, mainly bronze, but also steel, hard substances that allow themselves to be moulded into more gentle forms and at the same time show off transparency. Heavy metal turned delicate, cold metal that glows in warm tones. In the heat of an oven and carefully created by the artist, this dead material becomes alive glowing in tones of yellow, green, blue, red, violet and brown. This same material when creased, bundled, rolled, folded and pleated reminds one of landscapes, wrinkled skin or kamasutra bodies, leaving a lot to ones imagination.

UNPREDICTABLE ORDER

To begin with her work appears somewhat reserved. She arranges and combines these headstrong lively shapes and assembles them onto stern geometrically arranged plexi-glass forming rhythmic patterns.  A contrast of foreground and background, light and shade with multiple layers that are transparent. Her work far more liberated, has warmer and more passionate colours that that remind one of bunched, creased material landscapes that eventually take over the harsh surface of the plexi-glass completely. The individual elements become independent no two are alike and each tells it’s own story. As a whole though they still manage to remain in an unpredictable order.

THE BIG GAME OF LIFE

The 40-year-old artist a skilled, draughtswoman and building manager, has worked in positions usually associated with men.  At present she is working for a firm that builds organ. Organ pipes out of tin and is once again fascinated by this new material, a ying - yang of hard and soft, warm and cold, heavy and light, rational order done playfully with a spiritual insight. A person with gentle irony, humour and charm who mixes in a man’s world playing the game of life that she also reflects in her art.

REVEALED AND ENVELOPED

Next to the large wall objects she also has a series of pleated and creased body forms. These are material strips sewn together with inox wire. Erotic nothings, that could be feathery corsets or shiny reptile skins, with just a hint of where the breasts, stomach, waist and hips could be. But they could just as easily be the dream like vision of a woman’s body where skin and body, reality and fantasy become a bewildering and witty mischevious game of revelation and envelopment. Gentle people can also be intense or show passion and power and this applies to the art of Ursula Gerber-Senger. Her work is down to earth and doesn’t lose itself in abstraction. In a mystical way, it hints at what she experiences in her daily life. It shows her concerns and her emotions as well as what urges her on her way.

Christian Rentsch, freelance journalist
ZÜRISEESPIEGEL Wochenendbeilage / Zürichsee-Zeitung 29.May - 4. June 1998
Translation: Roselee Gahler