Nose Paintings
Paintings of noses in stripe style and paintings of noses in dot style.
Stripe Style
Visible are stripes and within the stripes are gradient colours that run into each other. These cause the eye to flicker. At first the noses are hidden. It is often about things that are not obvious, only appearing at a second glance.
Dot Style
The nose is the most striking feature in a profile. Profilare in Latin means drawing a line. Profiles provide information based on facts about a person, not gathered by the person themselves. A profile is a roughly drawn line. Upon turning a nose around, it creates a question mark. The style, i.e. the repetitive pattern, consists of dots, the dots of the question mark.
The Nose
The nose is often referred to in literature. Noses are symbols for curiosity (poking one’s nose into things) and lies. In a pictorial poem (Calligramme) by Guillaume Apollinaire from 1913, L’Ouillet – the carnation – the nose is depicted as the throne of our future knowledge. I like this interpretation, as opposed to that of curiosity and lies; it is open and directed to what is still ahead.
I also like the wordplay connecting the word Glanz with the English word glance, which means look. Glance on the nose. Der Glanz auf der Nase. Reference to a case study from Sigmund Freud’s essay on “Fetischismus”. A young man creates a fetish out of “a certain glance on the nose“ of his sexual partner. The glance on the nose was the premise for sexual intercourse with the chosen lady. Freud’s analysis connects the word Glanz with the English word glance. Through the story of the Glance on the nose, our glance is directed to the nose. The visual desire finds resonance through the glance. The glance is the flicker that occurs when the waveform gradient colours run into each other. The nose becomes a representative for sight and desire.
Yes Or Yes, Yes Or Yes 4
One-night exhibition by Lisa Holzer and Chiara Minchio with David Jourdan, Nina Rhode
Croy Nielsen, Weydingerstraße 10, 10178 Berlin
David Jourdan, Untitled (Whoa Plato), Invitation card, Offset print, 2011
Yes Or Yes, Yes Or Yes*
4 exhibitions as performances of themselves
Yes Or Yes, Yes Or Yes is 4 exhibitions, for 4 hours, on 4 evenings, at 4 different venues in Berlin and shows our works in the context of favorite works from some selected artists. Yes Or Yes, Yes Or Yes follows our recent project ______ ho is no substitute for anything in Vienna.
The one-night exhibition format is a concentration of the exhibition to its opening. It is about the opening as self-expression of the exhibition, the exhibition as performance of itself, about exhibiting the format exhibition, respectively opening per se.
The reiterated affirmation in Yes Or Yes, Yes Or Yes refers to us, our works, the reiterated concept of this project, the four evenings, and is a reiterated yes for an art that believes in itself, takes itself seriously and, knowing about itself – and for this very reason – never wants to get along without self-irony.
The prelude for ______ ho is no substitute for anything was a set of exhibition posters and for Yes Or Yes, Yes Or Yes it will be invitation cards. As the ho and the mirrored ho posters for ______ ho is no substitute for anything, they are part of the exhibition, a discrete artistic work in themselves. This time the work consists in the invitation to David Jourdan to do a work as invitation card for Yes Or Yes, Yes Or Yes.
Subtly dressed up, we will also exhibit ourselves as artists and thus, also in this manner, standing beside ourselves so to speak, take into account in a performative way, the tragi-comical nuances in this alleged vocation-profession and all the embarrassment and dignity of exhibiting oneself or something of oneself.
* Primo Moroni founded the “Si o si Club” in Milano, after his withdrawal from the communist party, PCI in 1967. The “Si o si Club” was an independent place where for some years lectures, debates, and concerts took place. Primo Moroni (1936-1998) was an Italian intellectual and author, as well as an important figure of the non-parliamentary left in Italy.
Chiara Minchio, Big dots style, 145 x 190 cm, oil und spray-paint on canvas, 2011
Lisa Holzer, Merely A (The big Other)
Chiara Minchio, Untitled(Geld)
Chiara Minchio, Big dots style
Chiara Minchio, Untitled(Geld)
Lisa Holzer, Black Popcorn Talk, Performance
Lisa Holzer, Merely A (The big Other) (Detail)
Nina Rhode, Smaragd Bar – Weddinger Wertstaette
Chiara Minchio, Untitled(Geld), 48 x 58 cm, oil and spray-paint on canvas, 2011
Chiara Minchio, Untitled(Geld), 50 x 60 cm, oil and spray-paint on canvas, 2011
Chiara Minchio, Big Dot Style (Geld), 140 x 180 cm, oil and spray-paint on canvas, 2011
Nina Rhode, Smaragd Bar – Weddinger Wertstaette
Lisa Holzer, Black Popcorn Talk, Performance, 2010/11
Nina Rhode, Smaragd Bar – Weddinger Wertstaette, Stainless steel rack, brass cymbal, 2009