Durchblicke (Clear Views): Marcel Odenbach

A 40-foot long paper-collage panorama by German video artist Marcel Odenbach will be installed in the back space of Anton Kern Gallery. The work is entitled “Durchblicke” which translates as “clear views.” It is Odenbach’s fifth show at the gallery and the second in which he presents collages.

Immediately visible, the notion of a clear view, as suggested by the work’s title and its panorama format, is rejected by an all-around vista of dense palm tree thicket. Clear and distant vision is obscured, the spectator’s eye is caught up in the shadows of thickly layered close-ups of overlapping branches, leaves and coconuts. Any suggestion of a sublime landscape is negated in favor of an analytic gaze into the details that make up the large picture. These details are composed of newspaper clippings and press photographs that deal with current political events in several African nations. These are then carefully copied onto watercolor paper, dyed in ranges of green, brown and black, meticulously cut out and pasted onto the outlined paper support, ultimately forming the entirety of the image.