Verena Issel

January Depression (Remedy)

Kunstverein Springhornhof, Neuenkirchen, Germany

With the exhibition KLAPP KLAPP, Kunstverein Springhornhof presents a spectacular course of interconnected and colorful images and spaces by Verena Issel. […] The starting point of Issel’s installation, which covers the entire ground floor of the institution, is a series of drawings entitled January Depression (Remedy). Some forty images were created in 2020, when the artist had to spend three weeks in strict quarantine in her Berlin apartment due to the COVID-19 pandemic. […] In an attempt to accept spatial and social limitations rather than fight them, Issel imposed a set of strict rules on herself. She decided to restrict herself to the medium of painting, to paint only on grey cardboard in a format of 42 × 30 cm, to use only unmixed primarycolors from a very limited palette, to fill them into broad highlighter pens and to apply them to the paper. She only allowed herself to paint things that were in the house. This set of rules sounds simple enough, but for Issel, whose art usually explores the boundaries of entire spaces, rooms or walls, it was a severe restriction. Nevertheless, she forced herself to paint at least two pictures a day. The therapy was successful. Resisting the temptations of Netflix and the threat of pandemic depression, Verena Issel developed an unexpected joy in combining colors and forms on a small scale—sometimes abstract, sometimes figurative, sometimes clearly defined, sometimes playful. The only extra she allowed herself was to incorporate household objects—colored earplugs, plastic fringes or pieces of foam—into the game. In the exhibition at Springhornhof, the small pictures, originally intended as a private exercise, regain their freedom. The colorful motifs become the space, leap onto walls and floors, mutate into free-standing outlines, repeat themselves, change colors and proportions and flirt with each other.

☐ Bettina von Dziembowski, exhibition text, 2021

INGREDIENTS:

January Depression 1
January Depression 2
January Depression 3
January Depression 4
January Depression 5
January Depression 6
January Depression 7
January Depression 8
January Depression 9
January Depression 10
January Depression 11
January Depression 12
January Depression 13
January Depression 14
January Depression 15
January Depression 16
January Depression 17
January Depression 18
January Depression 19
January Depression 20
January Depression 21
January Depression 22
January Depression 23
January Depression 24
January Depression 25
January Depression 26
January Depression 27
January Depression 29
January Depression 30
January Depression 32
January Depression 33
January Depression 34
January Depression 35
January Depression 38
January Depression 39
Shoe
Chinese Cabbage
Cigarette
Flower
Flower II
Flower III
Untitled
Untitled II
Untitled III
Bottle Opener
Mountains
Peanut

I created this series of drawings during a four-week-long COVID quarantine in January 2021. I wasn’t allowed to leave the house at all. I felt frustrated by all the new rules, though I also didn’t really know what was right or wrong in this new situation. So instead of going against the rules—which was often my secret desire—I decided to go with the rules. I made my own.

I chose to restrict myself to the medium of painting: to paint only on grey cardboard in a 42 × 30 cm format, to use only unmixed primary colors from a very limited palette, to fill the paint into broad highlighter pens, and to “draw” instead of paint. I only allowed myself to depict things that were inside the house and only use kitchen things as collage elements. I had to produce at least three paintings per day.

The series is called January Depression.

When it finally became possible again to leave the house and hold exhibitions, I was invited to show my work at the Kunstverein Springhornhof. I decided to use the small January Depression drawings as the starting point for a larger room installation, in which the original pieces would serve as the foundation for expansive wall drawings and sculptures. The visual elements from the drawings broke free—they danced through the space, leapt onto the walls and spilled onto the floor. They gained their own sense of freedom—just like I did.

The title of this installation is January Depression (Remedy).

January Depression (Remedy)

2021, wall painting, wood, drawings,
dimensions variable,
Installation view Kunstverein Springhornhof
Photo: Fred Dott, Hamburg