Stephen Willats : Endless - Karpowski, Annika; Willats, Stephen (Berlin : Galerie Thomas Schulte, 2019)
In the exhibition the works are integrated into an endless wall-drawing across the whole of the gallery space, consisting of continuous swarm-like, grouped, identical arrows pointing in different directions. The works on paper are drawings in colored pencil and photo collages. For these, Willats photographed the inhabitants of high-rise buildings and their belongings that surround them in their private sphere including telephone, television, supplies and other personal possessions. Objects that the people like and need and which belong to their habitat, objects which at some point were considered modern and with which people felt kept them in touch with modern life. While in some works Willats represents the relationships between people and objects as found, in others the artist creates new relations as in the series Buildings and Vases. The vases in these works are as monumental as the skyscrapers with which they are juxtaposed. On a structural level, it could be said that buildings are themselves vessels which can absorb something while externally retaining a concrete form. Thus, because of its structure, the tower block with its reduced and modernist façade, for Willats serves as an object of study in his work; an object with a simple, sleek exterior, but with a highly complex, cellular interior, where people live and create their own individual worlds. In other works from the Conceptual Tower series, Willats uses intense colors to highlight geometrically abstracted objects and buildings, which he connects to each other with delicate arrows. They represent another variant of the artist’s diagrammatic systems that depict or invent transformations, relationships and communication models. As part of this group of works the four-part work Life in Various Forms with its straight-forward title appears as a collaged manifesto by the artist. (from publisher)
Stephen Willats : Endless, Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin, 27 january to 10 march 2018
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Keywords: Willats, Stephen