Constantin Luser’s creative production is shaped by research into a range of interests; in his works, these become manifest in the content as well as in the materials and techniques used – and quite often they merge with one another. The origins of his art lie in drawing, which has accompanied his work as a constant medium from the outset. Fantastic pictorial worlds evolve from the pencil or the brush and spread rampantly across the paper. In his kinetic wire sculptures, he translates the drawn line into brass wire and thus into the three-dimensional, to be viewed from all sides. They seem to float in the space, and a unique world is concentrated in these, too. From every standpoint, they reveal new perspectives and not only metaphorically – also in the space and in a symbiosis with light, a secret protagonist that throws shadow drawings onto the walls.
Music, and making music, is another of the artist’s great passions. It finds its way into the works when, for example, brass instruments such as trumpets and horns combine as sculptural components to create a visual composition.
The works in the current exhibition represent and adopt some of these facets in the artist’s oeuvre. In new ink drawings, we are immersed in intertwined upper- and netherworlds that unfold across the paper. Populated by curious creatures, real as well as imagined animals and unknown flying objects, adjacent and yet somehow linked scenarios emerge – every line leading to something new and previously concealed.
But we also encounter fascinating creatures in the exhibition space. The ‘Protosaurus’ represents the mysterious, splendid species of trumpet sculptures: music in the body of a dinosaur, one might think. The sculpture appears bestial and monumental due to its dimensions and stature, but manages to be simultaneously light and elegant. Sounds may also be coaxed from it, as the brass instruments can be played – a perhaps surprising quality, but particularly relevant in light of the most recent research findings on the sounds made by those long extinct earth dwellers. Unique tête-à-têtes are also concealed in the free-floating sculptures made from gilded or black painted brass wire.
The most recent series of works is a group of graceful-looking pieces on and de facto also in paper. Constantin Luser refers to them as ‘wiregraphs’ with a view to their production, as a wire stencil is pressed into the paper surface and leaves behind its delicate traces; a drawing that can only be seen in the form of the impression. Delicate shapes made from black wire are laid over these, complementing the almost invisible lines in ever new ways.
We are delighted to present the fourth solo exhibition by Constantin Luser with ‘Verbogenes und Verborgenes’.
