Thomas Schroeren
Galerie Sandra Bürgel, Berlin, Germany
Thomas Schroeren, 'Jetzt kaufe ich mir Freizeit' (2009), exhibition view
‘Jetzt kaufe ich mir Freizeit’ (‘Now let me buy some free time’) is a difficult show that demands a lot of patience. Thomas Schroeren is a young artist from Hessen, in central Germany, who initially trained as a painter in Frankfurt though now describes himself as an object-maker. The early phase of his career seems to have ended in rebellion; amongst the works in Sandra Bürgel’s storage room is a hideous combine entitled Ich hasse Malerei (I Hate Painting, 2005). According to Bürgel, Schroeren became increasingly dissatisfied with the material mastery he came to feel painting demanded. The artist currently maintains a website suggestively entitled Counterworks and has avoided setting up a studio in an effort to sidestep some of the institutional baggage involved.
Das letzte Bild (The Last Picture, 2006)
The second room features an open suitcase containing a battleship turned on its side in a landscape entitled Vorwarnung zur Ankuft der A.L.F. (Lass mich schnell ueberlegen ob ich noch kurze Pappe da hab) (Premonition to the arrival of extraterrestial life form [Let me think if I have short cardboard here], 2009) and three cardboard cut-outs of trains, ascending and descending on imaginary tracks (Elf Dimensionen up and down, 2009) and two small prints: Rockstar (2009) and the partially pixellated M&M reprint (2009) - on each of which a mysterious coin is held in place by a magnet. (The latter is apparently a reference to an earlier work.)
M&M reprint (2009)
In general, Schroeren embraces a do-it-yourself, found-object collage-aesthetic (the simplest point of comparison are the rhythmless combines of Robert Rauschenberg). To Ronald McDonald (2009) features computer parts amongst its panels, along with an old painting by Schroeren himself. Elsewhere the two-part Alptraum in meinem Zimmer (Nightmare in my room, 2009) features a doll turned on its side. The general proposition is an art of sculptural collage, vague with a hermeticism that shades into opacity.
Erste Vision, First vision, 2009)
The first piece on display, Erste Vision, First vision, 2009), is a print of the artist looking at an image of himself in a window - though the reflected image is in fact a different image. Similarly, one panel of To Ronald McDonald consists of an image of a German department store model holding a beach ball; his head has been covered with a black sticker bearing the Motorola logo, along with the obscure inscription ‘denkt Gott’. This is perhaps a reference to Bertolt Brecht’s proverb ‘Der mensch denkt, Gott lenkt’ (Man proposes, God disposes). So there is Man, and God, and consumerism, and technology - and some kind of relationship holding between them.
What this relationship consists of is difficult to appreciate. Schroeren seems for the moment unable to clearly articulate his ideas, and there is a mystical element to what he does say. His statement in the press release reads: ‘This exhibition, the word literally taken, is a haze. The mathematics nature of things meets with our lyrical reception of the world.’ The struggle, claims Schroeren, is between ‘feeling and intellect, Nature and Man, or even logical reasoning against all spiritual.’ Disregarding the difficult translation, these abstractions remain vast and unwieldy in any language. Schroeren speaks of an invitation to face nature ‘pure hearted.’ I sympathize with his sincerity, though am uncertain that this strategy offers enough.
The doctrine of pure-heartedness, conceived as innocence, recurs through this show. There is something cargo-cultish about Heresy (2009), a sort of book made from metal, paper, acrylic glass, a found shopping list, a post card and an electric cable. Elsewhere the geometrical form of Chaise Longue (2009) recalls a child’s high-chair and Ragdan (2009) is a door made from what looks like children’s building blocks. Geboren am 2. Maerz (Born on the 2nd of March, 2009) references birth more directly.
Geboren am 2. Maerz (Born on the 2nd of March, 2009)
A lot of the pieces are oddly shaped; bulging, sprawling, asymmetric, many of them hang from the ceiling. In general they seem to lack rigour and precision. The work which made me the most unhappy was Wirst du mich mit lieben mit all meinen Felhlern (Will you love me with all my flaws, 2009). The piece consists of four golden loops made out of cardboard hanging down from a rack. Bürgel suggested this defence: ‘The question “Will you love me with all my flaws” is a good one. Many people who have come into the gallery have said that the form reminds them of golden tears.’ The question is good, but this association seems clichéd.
But perhaps this is partly the point. In almost every respect, I found this show frustrating: many of the compositions seem wilful and arbitrary, difficult to understand and unrewarding; confused and incomplete. But then ‘the exhibition, the word literally taken’ also harbours these features. In this respect, Schroeren is perhaps doing something ambitious, pitting a flawed art of flaws against the tyranny of the perfect, and the idea that art should supply an escape-valve from the frustrations of the world.
Daniel Miller
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