Exhibitions

Konrad Fischer Galerie Berlin is pleased to announce the opening of an exhibition of new works by Harald Klingelhöller.

Harald Klingelhöller was born in 1954 in Mettmann, Germany. From 1976 until 1982 he studied in Düsseldorf with Klaus Rinke. Early on he participated in exhibitions with artists such as Thomas Schütte, Reinhard Mucha, Wolfgang Luy and Ludger Gerdes. Since 1993 he has been a professor at Kunstakademie Karlsruhe. Klingelhöller’s work has been shown in numerous important international exhibitons, such as Skulpturprojekte Münster (1987), Whitechapel Gallery London (1990), and documenta 9 (1992), as well as in solo exhibitions at Museum Haus Esters, Krefeld (1988), Lenbachhaus Munich (1997) and Museu Serralves, Porto (2007).

Since the mid-eighties Klingelhöller’s sculptural work has been accompanied by lingual constructions which are far more than just titles of the sculptures. In juxtaposing metaphoric-poetic language – for example "Like the image of someone reading by the window" or „In a landscape reacting to words“ – with the related but heterogenous sculptural forms, the work of Klingelhöller creates a space of resonance, in which the meanings of the works are echoing and constantly morphing. In keeping with the flexibility of linguistic systems, Klingelhöller understands his sculptures not as final propositions but as possible portrayals of the relationship between his sculptures and and their accompanying text.

In 2005, the determination of the sculptural form through its title becomes evident for the first time in Klingelhöllers cabinet versions, as the dimensions of the cabinet’s drawers correspond precisely with the length of each word used in the related text. This principle also applies for his new work „Streets after the rain, cabinet version“ (2012). Detached from all walls, this sculpture brings along its own place and therefore, like a large scale architectural fragment, corresponds with the exhibition space.

The forms of Klingelhöller’s shadow versions are based on the transformation of shadows of his earlier works into steel plates. By bending, trimming, enlarging or minimizing powder-coated or lacquered steel plates, the shadow outlines of previous sculptures become three-dimensional. The shadow versions then keep the title of the original sculpture that casts the shadow in the first place. The repetition of this process often results in the shape of boxes made out of several layers of steel plates (box versions), which quietly echoe their point of reference.

Besides the cabinet and shadow versions, Klingelhöller recently started working on chains, which can be understood as references to past and future sculptural work. Here, the connection to language becomes visible again as the words of the work’s title are transferred into the sequence of the chain, represented by differently coloured chain links. Placed in corners or even dividing the exhibition space, these seemingly hovering metal chains reveal rooms behind rooms – conceptually and very real.