Although Isa Genzken's primary focus is sculpture, she uses various media including photography, film, video, works on paper and canvas, collages, and books. Her diverse practice draws on the legacies of Constructivism and Minimalism and often involves a critical, open dialogue with Modernist architecture and contemporary visual and material culture. Using plaster, cement, building samples, photographs, and bric-a-brac, Genzken creates architectonic structures that have been described as contemporary ruins. She further incorporates mirrors and other reflective surfaces to literally draw the viewer into her work. The column is a recurring motif for Genzken, a “pure” architectural trope on which to explore relationships between “high art” and the mass-produced products of popular culture.
website reference: http://www.museion.it/?p=2789&lang=en
Thoughts:
- Uses found objects and materials in ways I had never seen before in a transformative way
- At the DMA exhibit, I realized how much the space a show or installation is put in impacts the overall feel. I felt that the space her Retrospective exhibit was held in was too small for the amount of work shown and felt cramped and overwhelming.
- I really enjoy her sculptural works - especially her "bonnet" pieces in the way that they use movement through texture but also physically move.