Alexandra Bircken »STRETCH«

With the exhibition STRETCH, the Kunstverein Hannover is mounting an extensive presentation of works by artist Alexandra Bircken (*1967, lives in Cologne) that includes early as well as new, site-specific works. Experimenting with material as well as taking the human and mechanical body as a point of departure are fundamental parameters of her sculptural oeuvre.

Alexandra Bircken’s works are distinguished by a powerful presence of the body. In her treatment of materials, which are interconnected, stretched, deconstructed, and placed in context, the artist produces multilayered webs in both a material as well as a metaphorical sense. There is an auratic materiality inherent in her installative works that is marked both by soft or organic components such as leather, wool, nylon stockings, garden hoses, or grass as well as by hard, consolidating materials such as plastic, plaster, metal, or bronze. The artist selects these materials and objects through targeted research and alters them during the working process by means of modeling or cuts.

For the work Scheibentorso (2013) she soaked clothing in hot wax and poured it into the cut slices of a torso, letting it harden. The detail and folding of the articles of clothing set in wax are reminiscent of CT images. The figures in New Model Army 1–5 (2016), which were created especially for the exhibition, also consist of several layers of skin: by means of padding and layering, forms are modeled and additional layers of fabric and physical enhancement are made from nylon stockings and leather from worn motorcycle gear. Bircken’s interest in the source material, in ayering, and in assemblage is already apparent in early works such as Püppi auf Abwegen (2009) or Landschaft (2004).

Skin as a cellular structure and the largest and outwardly visible organ, and which marks the boundary between inside and outside, constitutes the basis for the development of the artist’s complexly worked pieces. It becomes recognizable as soon as one enters the exhibition that site-specific installations cause the rooms to appear to be extended, link them with one another, and dynamize them by means of coil made of garden hoses (Bindegewebe [2016]). Thus the title of the exhibition, STRETCH, makes reference to the stretchability of fabric and can at the same time be understood as a metaphor for tension, interweaving, and as an inspiration for the spatial display.

Even the sculptures distributed throughout the exhibition, which are reminiscent of human figures and are sometimes presented in rows, on ladders, or draped on the glass roof, approach the visitor. These bodies, which are always oriented toward human dimensions, are related to the machine as a man-made apparatus or instrument of power. The two motorcycles—a racer manufactured by Aprilia (2013) and the new work
Janus (2016), which was reassembled out of a Honda touring motorcycle—are rendered inoperative through a cut or their reverse assembly and direct one’s gaze toward the machine’s body. Unlike the decommissioned machines, which, however, continue to come across as vital and dynamic, the gray apparatuses actually move on the floor and explore the works and the rooms. These lawn-mower robots, which are deployed in four of the seven spaces, add an acoustic and mechanical, repetitive track to the exhibition, which is supplemented by the film Techno Strick (2016) being shown here for the first time.

The cut as a transgression of the boundary between inside and outside as well as an element of deconstruction is used in works such as Offener Schritt (2013) and Silverstone (2013). This becomes equally as apparent in the case of the fragmented body parts made of motorcycle gear and in particular in the bisected weapons UZI and AK 47 (2016), a machine gun from Israel and a Russian assault rifle. Both the weapons

as well as the work B.U.F.F. (2014), which recalls bombs, represent “hard” symbols in their interplay with Alexandra Bircken’s sculptures. Their humorist, sharp-witted titles refer back to mundane contexts, such as in this case to “Big Fat Ugly Fellows,” which is the vernacular name for the B-52 bomber. The black phallus-like objects covered with leather address the theme of dominance, but also the weapon as a fetish and an impressive instrument of power that addresses the relationship between those who dominate and those over whom they dominate.

The exhibits time and again revolve around human beings in their objectness. As already addressed above, one encounters various creatures reminiscent of human bodies—be they torsos, for example in the form of the bronze sculpture Eva (2013), which calls to mind a cyborg (a hybrid made of a living organism and a machine) on the one hand, and on the other represents a classic rubber doll. The elongated skylight hall is populated by the expansive installation Eskalation II (2016) as well as a total of 40 Deflated Figures (2014), half of which are male and half of which are female. These emptied figures or body suits sewed out of nettle and covered with latex arouse numerous associations simultaneously: articles of clothing, morbid creatures, fetish objects, or shadows that “strike terror into our hearts” above the wooden ladders and the glass roof. At the same time, they allow us to direct our gaze toward the existing architecture and offer insight into hidden levels. The movement of bodies in space is furthermore addressed in objects such as Walking House (2016) or the expansive Trolleys (2016)—objects that, like the motorcycles, are standing but are ostensibly marked by motion.

The circuit consisting of various assemblages and smaller sculptures is followed by sketchbooks and accessories from the 1990s that have been placed in display cases. These were produced when Alexandra Bircken was still active in the area of fashion and—besides her affinity to fabrics and textures—demonstrate her artistic interest in object and space. Bircken’s artistic work began in 2003 with the shop Alex in Cologne. She had studied fashion design at, and graduated from, Central St. Martins College of Art and Design in London, where she subsequently taught for many years and made a name for herself with her Faridi label (1995–97) in collaboration with Alexander Faridi.

Alexandra Bircken’s works have already been on display in museum exhibitions, such as at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2014), and at The Hepworth Wakefield (2014). Prior to that she had shows at the Kunstverein in Hamburg (2012), in the foyer of the Bonner Kunstverein (2012), as well as at Studio Voltaire in London (2011) or the Kölnischer Kunstverein (2010). The exhibition STRETCH being shown at the Kunstverein Hannover will subsequently be presented in altered form at the Museum Abteiberg in Mönchengladbach (2017).