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Karina Spechter – Plastische Bilder

When viewing a work of art, one rarely imagines the creative process in such a concentrated form: in Karina Spechter’s object sculptures, one can sense they have been wrested from life. The elaborated, reduced forms gather the experience of life into a pictorial sign that, once seen, impresses itself indelibly on the mind. The power of reduction creates a forceful presence of form in space, sculpturally disrupted by an all-over structure consisting of countless small forms – the artist calls them ‘stipsel’. Seemingly restless and even aggressive, their delicate, pulsating surface disperses the viewer’s gaze focused on the form as a whole and ultimately directs it back to the viewer himself. The result is an almost paradoxical interplay of the most diverse perceptual and interpretive viewpoints.
Die plastischen Bilder sind ‘beseelt’. Die Behauptung der Künstlerin bleibt zeitlos spürbar.

The group of works of hand-crocheted PVC sheet reminiscent of shiny sweet papers is also pure artistic expression, a sculptural statement. Heavy and bulky in their initial effect, they become surprisingly light and airy on closer inspection due to the loops of their crocheted material. Here, again, the main form is animated by the vibrating surface of the individual loops. Although sparkly like Christmas baubles, they can evoke a sense of unease instead of cheerful sweetness, as in the case of the large head sculpture Katze/cat. Glück/Happiness, on the other hand, the house of gold, exudes a sense of security and positive energy often attributed to gold.

Transformed into signs, Karina Spechter’s pictorial objects and sculptures possess an ambivalence that can both attract and repel.

CV