Maike Gräf – Weder Schwarz noch Weiß

Weder Schwarz noch Weiß? Das stimmt doch nicht! Die Figuren sind doch schwarz und weiß! Gut, einige sind zum Teil auch bunt, im Großen und Ganzen aber sind Schwarz und Weiß die bestimmenden Farben, dazu kommt die natürliche Farbe des Materials Holz.
Da ist Nõ, ihre meditative Körperhaltung mutet asiatisch an, macht sie Schattenboxen oder eine Karateübung? Da ist der kleine Play Boy, dessen Gesichtszüge aus Quadraten und Kreisen bestehen, er geht herausfordernd und angriffslustig mit Zeigefinger und Penis auf den Betrachter zu.
Die schwarz-weiße Farbe verleiht den Figuren Zeichenhaftigkeit, die schwarz gezeichneten Kanten und weißen Flächen wirken wie zweidimensionale Skizzen. Schwarz und Weiß, Skulptur und Zeichnung, das scheinen nicht die einzigen Gegensätze zu sein.

Die Figuren lassen an Comic-Stripes, Pop-Art und japanische Mangas denken aber auch an Kultfiguren, sie erscheinen im Moment der Bewegung und fordern heraus, reizen, machen an, sie können sich auch zurückziehen, nicht mehr extrovertiert sein, sondern in sich versunken, die Bewegung ist gleichzeitig Meditation und kraftvolle Leidenschaft.
Wer sich vermeintlich an Spielzeug erinnert fühlt, erlebt eine Täuschung, die sexuell aufgeladenen Figuren verführen den Betrachter auch in der Materialität, was leicht erscheint, ist tatsächlich ein massives Stück Holz.

In ihrer ersten Einzelausstellung in der Stern-Wywiol Galerie entführt uns die Berliner Künstlerin Maike Gräf, geb. 1976, in eine Welt der Gegensätze, Widersprüche und Täuschungen. Die klassische Bildhauergestalt der Figura Serpentinata steht im Gewand von heute vor uns, frech und verspielt, still und rätselhaft, erst nach längerem Hinschauen erschließt sich ihre ganze Vielfalt.
Maike Gräf spielt auf vielen Ebenen mit unserem kollektiven Kulturgedächtnis und schafft aus Vertrautem aufregend Neues.

Speech at the vernissage of the exhibition "Neither black nor white" Maike Gräf by Dr Kathrin Reeckmann, 11.04.2013

Ladies and gentlemen,

A large shopping centre in the west of Hamburg is currently attracting our attention. Two attractive young women can be seen on large posters with the following words underneath:

"A world that fulfils our every wish"

What a promise! What big words for a collection of retail outlets selling clothes, shoes and electronic goods.
Today, we encounter the stylistic device of exaggeration, emotionalisation and the eventisation of even the most mundane activities such as shopping or eating everywhere. These marketing techniques have long since entered the everyday lives of many people, be it in media coverage, in the fast pace of trends or in our expectations of life in general.
Maike Gräf's figures don't do things by halves either:
- The giant babies of Peaceful War Toys are as curious, fearless and confident as you could wish for
- The playboy makes clear advances to his counterpart and makes everyone green with envy
- The vamp shows off his charms in a classic pose that none of his sex mates could ever achieve.

In their literalisation of terms, idioms and ideas/promises, Maike Gräf's sculptures are legitimate descendants of Pop Art as we have known it since the 1960s. At the same time, they are only conceivable today: The artist draws with her hands full from the visual pool of our contemporary global consumer culture, in which everything is always instantly available (at least virtually). Have you noticed that Maike Gräf's cosmos only recognises youth? No one has time for procrastination here, all needs must be satisfied immediately. Her characters live as if there is no tomorrow, and yet they are all inscribed with the hint of their mortality with their baby-like or old-age-like, bald heads and their fragile, skeleton-like physicality.

Maike Gräf's sculptures are contemporary, but also ancient: they know how to visualise things in such a condensed, compact and concise way because they are precisely observed and exaggerated. In this they resemble comic figures - both in form and content - who summarise all facets of human existence, from Superman to the eternal loser. Comics, cartoons and graffiti are among the most innovative forms of expression of our time. Succinct and concise, they speak their own language. In the sometimes grotesque, sometimes threatening, sometimes childlike exaggeration of their characters, in the deliberate exaggeration of forms and proportions or in the expressive body language, Maike Gräf's sculptures, just like many comics, are ultimately of archaic origin and show how old our patterns of perception actually are: Compare this with cave paintings, Stone Age art such as the Venus of Willendorf or fetishes and masks.

The depiction of the human figure in wood is probably one of the oldest themes in art. The raw, even superficially artless formal language of Maike Gräf's sculptures speaks of the labour of wresting a form from the brittle material. We see the traces of tools such as chainsaws and chisels, estimate the dimensions of the trunk from which the figures are cut in one piece. Maike Gräf breaks her figures down into cubically fractured individual parts, changes the proportions, emphasises individual features and leaves others out completely. The figures are always worked from all angles, take possession of the surrounding space and thus sometimes have an almost monumental quality.

Maike Gräf is a virtuoso who utilises her perfect mastery of material and form only to cover them up with a thick layer of paint.
Instead of clear certainties, she deceives. She makes the natural material look artificial, even cheap, only to emphasise the natural materiality in the next moment by leaving wood colour, cracks and chips.

All of these design principles can also be seen in the reliefs that Maike Gräf has been making for over a year and which can be considered a variation on the classic sculptor's drawing. Sculptor's drawings are so interesting because, at their best, they are illuminating commentaries on the three-dimensional works. In her reliefs, Maike Gräf plays with perspective, breaks the bodies down into faceted individual parts and lets large lines of force run across the surface. She thus reflects her working method in the sculptures and at the same time presents us with the inhabitants of her world as if in a picture gallery.

Ladies and gentlemen, as a gallery for contemporary sculpture, we are proud to have someone like Maike Gräf as our guest, who works in a way that is both new and old at the same time.

Mr Volkmar Wywiol recognised this immediately at his first meeting with the artist and commissioned from her what is one of the most exciting subjects in classical sculpture: an act of love. We have the honour of presenting the artist's latest work to the public for the first time: Verliebt verholzt, completed three weeks ago.

The aforementioned promise of the world that fulfils our every wish is viewed here from the perspective of classical mythology: The story of Apollo and Daphne is depicted: Apollo mocks the god of love Eros as a bad shot and the latter takes revenge in his own way: He hits Apollo with an arrow that makes him feel undying love for the nymph Daphne. Daphne, on the other hand, is hit by an arrow that has the exact opposite effect. As a result, Apollo harasses Daphne to the utmost. Finally, she is so exhausted by the harassment that she begs her father Peneios to change her form, which is so arousing to Apollo. The father fulfils her wish and transforms her daughter into a laurel tree. The radical nature of the wish fulfilment is reminiscent of Oscar Wilde, who remarked: "When the gods want to punish us, they answer our prayers.

Maike Gräf approaches the subject in her own way: She interprets the story with her own energy, allowing Apollo to reach the goal of his wishes and Daphne likewise. Where Ovid leaves the details open, she takes on the unification, the drastic nature of which will come as no surprise to connoisseurs of ancient legends. Maike Gräf creates art from wood and then allows it to return to wood - Ovid's story merges with the artist's artistic approach with astonishing consistency.

Ladies and gentlemen, I could lecture you for hours about this sculpture. But we have the artist as our guest tonight - so take the opportunity to talk to her personally, ask questions, discuss and get to know the cosmos of Maike Gräf, which we are presenting to you tonight in lavish abundance.

Thank you for your attention.