art forum berlin 2010

DUVE Berlin presents Sarah Oppenheimer and Jen DeNike

The joint installation by artists Jen DeNike and Sarah Oppenheimer expands the possibility of representing the body within an architectural surround. At Art Forum Berlin 2010, the work of the two artists will intertwine: De-Nike’s videos will project through Oppenheimer’s „sculptural holes“.

OE2 (milled Corian, hardwood, cable, 2010) continues Oppenheimer’s investigation into architectural holes by reassessing the visual and spatial cues of architectural absence. In OE2 Oppenheimer explores how the properties of the planar edge articulate visual shifts from one space to another. Edges combine to create changing apertures: as the viewer moves around the bracketing edges, the view through the aperture shifts. For the first time, at Art Forum Berlin 2010 Oppenheimer will translate her signature wall break-throughs into the dimension of free standing sculpture. OE2 will frame the projection beam of Another Circle (Single chanel video, 2010) a new video by Jen DeNike.

Another Circle, 2010 is related to the artist’s first ballet performance, Scrying, 2010. The non-narrative, threeact ballet, Scrying debuted at the Museum of Modern Art in January and will be produced for Julia Stoschek Collection in April this year. In DeNike’s ballet, six dancers perform a series of repetitive gestures that epitomize the “ballerina” par excellence.

Another Circle is a continuation of DeNike’s investigation of this perfect and iconic form. In the video the ballerina in classic tutu and pointe shoes appears to perform an infinite pirouette. Like the ballerina that turns endlessly in the music box, when wound up, DeNike’s video explores our innermost fantasy for an enduring perfection through a fetishized obsessive gesture.

The projection of Another Circle will engage the negative space in Sarah Oppenheimer’s sculptures, creating an intervention that engages both artists work in a new way. The intersection creates a third invisible entity of perspective, moving the viewer through Oppenheimer’s floating planes to the video projection on the wall beyond. The installation is shaped by the movement of the viewer through the architectural surround; the viewer becomes an active figure within the installation as a whole.