Gallery EM is pleased to announce the solo exhibition of the German artist, Jörg Obergfell. This is his third exhibition as well as first solo one at Gallery EM. As the title 'Towers and Trees' implies, the artist searches the relationship between an artificial element like a building and a natural one like a tree, and shows such research in various mediums. With this, the artist is interested in buildings in a city and related architectural system, which cover the important part of his work becoming a main motif. His 13 works of video, installation and photo, which were created through his interests in civilization and nature, and a process for these, will be on view.
Nowadays, many 'towers' built in double-quick time in a big city, and 'tree', which has been since before the progress of civilization but is threatened by industrial development, are coexisting strangely but in harmony. Obergfell explores and studies cityscapes, and shows them in mixed-media works based on his research. The artist finds a plastic bottle, flyer, bark or small pieces of board to use them for his work. They are created as small sculpture, and he exhibits themselves at the gallery, or photos or videos of them placing in where he discovered elements. This is a way to reflect his concern about an uncertain boundary between the artificial structure and the nature on the exhibition. The viewers' interests for the artworks move from overall structure of objet to more specific and local sides, such as material and its texture, which reminds of us that there are natural factors preserved and protected even in the artificial cityscape.
The new exhibition introduces both previous and recent works which show his various ways of techniques. Hanging upside down the miniature photos of the tallest buildings in the world at a certain ratio, and the photo of the artist dressing up as Yeti, an animal in myth, contain his own humor. A video, 'From Scratch', showing a model of real building in Korea using a reed with sound, provides an utopia perspective of architectural model which cannot be actualized, and it makes us read the true message hidden by his parody and satire.
Courtesy of Gallery EM
