skull without nomenclature (2005), by Gerhard Marx @ Warren Siebrits
I love it when generous and talented people produce brilliant work, and so forgive me if I gush a little too much about maps to get lost by, Gerhard Marx’s current solo show at Warren Siebrits.
Although the show also boasts some of his award-winning work with Lara Foot-Newton, it is mostly a continuation of the series he first exhibited at outlet (minus one show his wife curated – I believe Siebrits himself bought most of the pieces at the former). Marx is “cutting and reconstituting maps,” in order to create images, meaning, emotion. In other words, after chopping up various cartograms, he then puts back together the roads, train lines, currents, etc, in the fragmented lands and seas in order to tell us something within the new image (as above). The process itself, which is devastatingly transparent in each work, feels moving, tedious and achy. The results are astoundingly beautiful, in the most curiously empty and fragile ways. He’s asking us to ‘look again’ at things far too complex to summarize on a blog, and the complexity of his source material, his process, his context: it works magnificently.
Gerhard Marx is going to be the next big thing; I promise you. And he deserves it. If you see one show before the year ends, make sure it’s this one. Oh, and I like him a lot, too, so if there are any left, buy his art. — up til 13 Dec (um, I think – you may want to check with the gallery, tho….)
