The Bittersweet Disaster: Lothar Hempel

Opening Friday, April 11, 1997, Anton Kern Gallery will present three installations and drawings by Lothar Hempel. This is the artist’s second exhibition with the gallery.

Hempel’s installations in the gallery represent ideas and sketches for a fictional scenario called This Bittersweet Disaster. Serving as stage-sets, they suggest an awakening from psychological trauma and an acute awareness and sensitivity from which thoughts and images slowly bloom and grow. The materials of wood, paper, stones and found objects are physical proof of activity. Their precise arrangements are integral within the constructions as much as the interaction between the viewer and the work. A selection of music composed by the artist accompanies the work, as well as drawings allude to the aftermath and subsequent survivors.

This Bittersweet Disaster is meant to evoke a memory of an event that never existed. By creating this parallel context, Hempel’s make-believe and ominous situations challenge the viewer’s recollections and sentiments. At the same time, these surroundings acknowledge a place where currents of activity have their nuclei; perhaps more beautifully, intensely and privately.

The exhibition will run through May 10, 1997.