The beginnings and ends of shadow lie between the light and darkness and may be infinitely diminished and infinitely increased. Shadow is the means by which bodies display their form. The forms of bodies could not be understood in detail but for shadow
Leonardo Da Vinci
Shadowlands places the sculptures of Sofie Muller amidst the paintings of Hanns Kunitzberger. Both artists embrace a corporeal symbolism in their work, that as Leonardo declared, rests on a bargain between light and darkness, a transaction made so that shadow might reveal form.
Muller’s commitment to the body, her open endorsement of its inherent fragility is evidence of her awareness of the fugitive, albeit cyclical nature of our existence. Her favoured material, alabaster, is itself a more vulnerable, ‘human’ stone that she carefully selects and sculpts with tenderness and reverence – as if indeed, it were flesh.
In In Praise of Shadows, Jun’ichir? Tanizaki himself quotes architect Louis Kahn “the sun never knew how wonderful it was, until it fell on the wall of a building,” This cimmerian space between light and dark seems to be the place that Muller and her exquisite sculptures most frequently occupy – and certainly the sculptures direct engagement with the wall allows them to perform the same magic that Kahn alludes to – to cast shadowplay.
In the same way that Peter Pan sought desperately to recapture his shadow, even going as far as to have Wendy sew it back on, Tanizaki and Muller acknowledge that a life lived without shadows is a life without dimension, without history. And it is history that Muller’s sculpture both speak to and share in. Her material, her analogue facility, her vision are all sustained by a deep awareness of history… and yet they simultaneously escape it, or rather it’s potential restraints.
The corporeal evidence of Muller’s sculptures is inverted in Kunitzberger’s paintings. The transaction between form and shadow becomes one between viewer and painting as the body exists ‘in absentia”.
Kunitzberger’s decisions about scale and proportion are perhaps decisions about portraiture – be they head and shoulders or full body. The intimacy of his delicate surfaces means that we apprehend the paintings most dramatically at close quarters – at arms length. At this distance they become our shadowplay.
Light enters Kunitzberger’s paintings from the flanks, retreating into the interior shroud of pigment – then remerges on the other side, as if it were a cycle of night and day. This notion of the cycle in Kunitzberger’s works has been celebrated at his magnificent exhibition at the Hamburger Kunsthalle where a grand cycle of sixteen paintings Abbild (Likeness)2002–2005, filled the domed Kuppelsaal. In this sense all Kunitzberger’s paintings are a mediation on time and its ceaseless, elliptical nature… which is just one reason why the installation in Hamburg was so perfect.
Presently Sofie Muller is exhibiting The Clean Room at the Museum Dr. Guislain, Ghent. This commanding and challenging installation was first presented as a thematic Pavilion at the inaugural Malta Biennale 2024, where it was awarded the Best Pavilion.
Fox Jensen McCrory & Fox Jensen are honoured to present the work of these two extraordinary artists together. Though they were both included in our Tokyo presentation of Portrait Without a Face, we have long wanted the opportunity make a more substantial exhibition of works that converse so deeply.
Opening Hours
- Tuesday - Friday, 11am - 5pm
- Saturday, 11am -3pm
Address
- 10 Putiki Street
- Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland, 1021
The beginnings and ends of shadow lie between the light and darkness and may be infinitely diminished and infinitely increased. Shadow is the means by which bodies display their form. The forms of bodies could not be understood in detail but for shadow
Leonardo Da Vinci
Shadowlands places the sculptures of Sofie Muller amidst the paintings of Hanns Kunitzberger. Both artists embrace a corporeal symbolism in their work, that as Leonardo declared, rests on a bargain between light and darkness, a transaction made so that shadow might reveal form.
Muller’s commitment to the body, her open endorsement of its inherent fragility is evidence of her awareness of the fugitive, albeit cyclical nature of our existence. Her favoured material, alabaster, is itself a more vulnerable, ‘human’ stone that she carefully selects and sculpts with tenderness and reverence – as if indeed, it were flesh.
In In Praise of Shadows, Jun’ichir? Tanizaki himself quotes architect Louis Kahn “the sun never knew how wonderful it was, until it fell on the wall of a building,” This cimmerian space between light and dark seems to be the place that Muller and her exquisite sculptures most frequently occupy – and certainly the sculptures direct engagement with the wall allows them to perform the same magic that Kahn alludes to – to cast shadowplay.
In the same way that Peter Pan sought desperately to recapture his shadow, even going as far as to have Wendy sew it back on, Tanizaki and Muller acknowledge that a life lived without shadows is a life without dimension, without history. And it is history that Muller’s sculpture both speak to and share in. Her material, her analogue facility, her vision are all sustained by a deep awareness of history… and yet they simultaneously escape it, or rather it’s potential restraints.
The corporeal evidence of Muller’s sculptures is inverted in Kunitzberger’s paintings. The transaction between form and shadow becomes one between viewer and painting as the body exists ‘in absentia”.
Kunitzberger’s decisions about scale and proportion are perhaps decisions about portraiture – be they head and shoulders or full body. The intimacy of his delicate surfaces means that we apprehend the paintings most dramatically at close quarters – at arms length. At this distance they become our shadowplay.
Light enters Kunitzberger’s paintings from the flanks, retreating into the interior shroud of pigment – then remerges on the other side, as if it were a cycle of night and day. This notion of the cycle in Kunitzberger’s works has been celebrated at his magnificent exhibition at the Hamburger Kunsthalle where a grand cycle of sixteen paintings Abbild (Likeness)2002–2005, filled the domed Kuppelsaal. In this sense all Kunitzberger’s paintings are a mediation on time and its ceaseless, elliptical nature… which is just one reason why the installation in Hamburg was so perfect.
Presently Sofie Muller is exhibiting The Clean Room at the Museum Dr. Guislain, Ghent. This commanding and challenging installation was first presented as a thematic Pavilion at the inaugural Malta Biennale 2024, where it was awarded the Best Pavilion.
Fox Jensen McCrory & Fox Jensen are honoured to present the work of these two extraordinary artists together. Though they were both included in our Tokyo presentation of Portrait Without a Face, we have long wanted the opportunity make a more substantial exhibition of works that converse so deeply.
