Images Festival
STEFFI LINDNER | AND THEN NOTHING TURNED ITSELF INSIDE-OUT
THURSDAY 09 APRIL – THURSDAY 30 APRIL, 2015

OPENING RECEPTION
FRIDAY 10 APRIL, 4:00PM-7:00PM

AndThen_videostill02

And then nothing turned itself inside-out is a multichannel video installation which examines the idiosyncratic and inaccessible nature of the changing processes that are inherent in material things. Therefore it questions familiar functions and appearances of everyday objects and our supposed control over them.

Our sense of life is crucially influenced by the experience of materiality. It is reliable and precarious at the same time: things seem reliable as long as they are still, available and function according to our expectations. Whereas if they don’t, by denying the natural access of prognostication, they appear to resist and irritate us.

Material things appear to be possessed with some sort of urge that eludes us with unregulated transitions. It seems as if they are actually waiting to fall, burn, gather mold, rust or turn yellow, etc. Such processes of change always require an exterior impulse. But if once given may it be intended or just by chance the thing chooses its own way of proceeding. It then reveals its idiosyncratic character of alteration which denies any external access. Even though we are intuitively inclined to prevent these precarious situations and processes, the things cant be hindered, sooner or later they will materialize their urge to change.

The video installation And then nothing turned itself inside-out shows a number of experiments, in which Steffi Lindner tries to approach these processualities and “autonomous” tendencies of things. Everyday objects are exposed to a simple setup of dynamics, time and chance, as well as interferences by the artist herself: two green cups of jelly with their lids removed are hung upside down from an approximate height of one meter while two white paper plates underneath each cup wait to receive the jelly; a white Styrofoam board dances and balances between the gusts of two wind machines; a red gymnastic ball, which imperceptibly looses air, sinks down between two wooden trestles in slow motion …

The law of nature and the intended movement of the objects, such as standing, turning, rotating, falling, dropping, sinking, etc. can easily and intuitively be anticipated. But where is the so called tipping point which unavoidably transfers the objects into a new state? When do things collapse and lose balance? When does gravity abandon them? And is IT perceptible?

In trying to catch the moment or impulse just before the tipping point, the eyes as well as the camera seem to be doomed to fail. Therefore Steffi Lindner also tries to get hold of this moment with her body for example by exposing herself to chance and trying to turn off the natural sense of balance. Nonetheless, the selective moments seem to remain unpredictable, which may occasionally raise the question of who is in control of whom.

And then nothing turned itself inside-out does not intend to prove something nor is it about the question of succeeding or failing. The work is rather driven by the pleasure in tracing the different dynamics and temporality of things while they remain elusive which doesn’t leave the work completely void of humor.

Steffi Lindner would like to gratefully acknowledge the support of the Academy of Media Arts Cologne in the production of this work.

STEFFI LINDNER grew up in Berlin, Germany, she finished her postgraduate studies at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (Germany) in 2012. She has participated in exhibitions, festivals and live video performances at home and abroad, including Eden Was Never So Close, Art Cologne, Cologne and Under Cover, Neue Heimat Berlin, Berlin (2014); Erarta Motion Pictures, Erarta Museum and gallerys of contemporary art, St. Petersburg (2013); Transformationen, ECHORAUM of The Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany, Bonn (2012); People Tell Me Im White and I Believe them, Art Cologne and Ein Kind ohne Kopf ist ein Mann ohne Hut, Neonchocolate Gallery, Berlin (2011); NADA Art Fair Miami, Miami Beach (2010); Anonyme Zeichner / Selection, Liste Art Fair Basel, Basel and Photography vs. Drawings, Shadow’s Space, Philadelphia and SXSW, Austin/Texas (2009); Facelift, Capla Kesting Fine Art Gallery, New York and Super3, Festival International Exit #15, Maison des Arts, Creteil/Paris (2008). Lindner currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany creating video, drawings, and installations.

This exhibition is presented in collaboration with the Images Festival, April 9 – April 18, 2015. For more information visit
imagesfestival.com