Bourouina Gallery is pleased to present René Luckhardt's Clown Cube, a project for which the artist created a 3D painting in which he performed and also became a part of it. Inside the cube, walls, ceiling and floor appear to be six strong colored canvases; the so formed room reminds of a Rubik's Cube in which the sides are folded towards the inside. René Luckhardt moves inside the room, using his own body as a brush, daubing and spitting, rubbing off and spreading the color on the walls.
The Clown is a recurring motif in Luckhardt's work: absurd, unpredictable, irritating and spontaneous, the clown figure is an allegory of the artist's existence. Both entertain, surprise, and at best provoke a cathartic laugh.
The Clown Cube is the combination and extension of different methods of the artist: in his Keller Kolored Kandy Klowns (2011), Luckhardt copied his studio and presented all of his Clown-paintings in one installation. The year before, he made replicas of historical murals as models, as for example Aleister Crowley's Chambre des Cauchemars.
The use of the artist's body finds its origin in a work of 1996, when Luckhardt had his own painted body photographed, striking poses directly recording to Egon Schiele paintings.
The photographer of this series, Jurgen Ostarhild, filmed the Clown Cubeperformance and worked with René Luckhardt on a trailer, which can be viewed online.
René Luckhardt lives and works in Berlin. In 2010 he founded the exhibition space Wonderloch Kellerland, which previously opened a branch in Los Angeles.
