Grids and Flowers
Sexauer Gallery, Berlin
“Yet we humans are actually earthworms.”
Things sprout, blossom, fly, and crawl around the exhibition space. The walls teem with images of various inhabitants.
We see garden arches that, instead of being neatly entwined with roses, are scattered throughout the space in a wide variety of shapes.
Verena Issel explores the tense relationship between nature and culture—an apparent contradiction that has become increasingly pronounced in recent years.
In the face of climate change, this is slowly calling into question humanity’s continued existence and unrestricted dominance over the planet. Only ten percent of the Earth is still wild, i.e., not manipulated by humans. Every other corner has been shaped according to a specific idea.
But to think that order has now given way to chaos would be the next fallacy. Issel’s work shows that this order is as ramified and rhizomatically interconnected as nature itself. Human beings are also part of nature, no matter how much they resist the fact that they are just one of many small cogs in the wheel of the world.
The exhibition that has now landed at Sexauer Gallery has several layers. One consists of found objects and set pieces that we use to shape this world, including pipe cleaners, earplugs, sushi bento dividers, and small polystyrene rolls. From these, Issel has created a microcosm that, if you allow yourself to follow its winding paths, proliferates and reveals the most surprising connections.
The small-format pictures sometimes show the same motif, increasingly abstracted, so that it is not clear who is referring to whom. Only one thing is certain: Everything is connected to everything else. The pictures were made in parallel. Therefore, if you take a step back and look at the big picture, you can also read them as a single fragmented image. You see flowers, blossoms, pits, beans, seeds—everything that makes nature bloom and flourish. The images describe a proliferating, growing, and ever-changing state of nature.
Another layer consists of pictures made of anti-slip mats. These mats are used to prevent carpets from slipping, so that everything stays where it belongs. Landscapes made of acrylic thread, curtain fringes, and ribbons are threaded and sewn into these titular grids. In this way, Issel brings to life dreamlike landscapes, lost palm trees, images of a paradise that probably never existed. Palm trees, beaches, coconuts, sea cucumbers, and other exotic-looking plants tell of the fact that the paradise conjured up in advertising is nothing more than the constructed idea of a tourist industry whose success is always destroying the very basis of this success. “Come visit unspoiled nature. Enjoy the peace and quiet!” screams the advertising, luring you in with photos that have been manipulated beyond recognition and resemble Issel’s plastic replicas more than what nature actually produces.
The earthworm-like figures, which can also be seen on the large grid carpets, seem to look at each other, somewhat perplexed and lost in this world of their own making, and ask themselves: “What now?” The answer is probably a shrug of the shoulders.
Yet another layer of sediment can be found in the exhibition, consisting of what man produces, declares as a victory over nature, and calls culture. These artifacts, Greek temples and pickled vegetables (the cultural techniques of preservation) are painted on glass. Pickled and preserved for eternity. So that the history of mankind can continue to be told as a story of progress, even if we are currently feeling the full force of the fact that this progress is destroying the very basis of our existence. The garden arches also tell of this constant struggle of man against nature—and thus also against himself. Normally, these arches force plants to grow in certain shapes, either to look nicer or to be useful. Issel has imposed other shapes on these arches, and now they meander along the floor, too large or too small to fulfill their task properly.
The walls of the gallery space are covered with a grid in which the pictures find their place. The various layers hang in a wild jumble.
It is like looking out of the window of an airplane on approach. One sees patches of nature, of the city, of man-made exoticism in close proximity and deceptive tranquility.
But one should not be deceived by the cheerful colors and friendly figures in this cosmos, for Issel’s choice of materials is by no means arbitrary.
The cheap, mass-produced plastic objects that have found a new, more beautiful use in Issel’s work are at the same time responsible for the fact that nature, the basis of all life, hardly exists anymore. It is precisely this plastic that covers the oceans in huge carpets and brings the lives of sea creatures to an agonizing end. But that is not all: Through the oceans, plastic finds its way back into the human organism in the form of microplastics. There could hardly be a more appropriate material to describe the paradoxical relationship between humans and the destruction of the very basis of their existence. How easily we are seduced by the friendly figures, the accessible and familiar material, is shown by the vicious circle in which we find ourselves, all singing the swan song of our existence together.
Rarely has this swan song been more friendly, cheerful, and seductive than in the work of Verena Issel.
☐ Laura Helena Wurth, exhibition text
INGREDIENTS:
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- Preserved Beauties 8
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- Preserved Beauties 1
- Preserved Beauties 3
- Preserved Beauties 4
- Preserved Beauties 15
- Preserved Beauties 11
- Preserved Beauties 16
- Worms II
- Palmtree
- Forest
- Flowers
- Worms
- Landscape
- Minigrids 1
- Minigrids 2
- Minigrids 3
- Minigrids 4
- Minigrids 5
- Minigrids 6
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- Minigrids 11
Grids and Flowers
2023, various works, wall painting, metal, foam rubber, dimensions variable
Installation view Sexauer Gallery, Berlin
Photo: Fred Dott, Hamburg
Grids and Flowers
2023, various works, wall painting, metal, foam rubber, dimensions variable
Installation view Sexauer Gallery, Berlin
Photo: Fred Dott, Hamburg
Grids and Flowers
2023, various works, wall painting, metal, foam rubber, dimensions variable
Installation view Sexauer Gallery, Berlin
Photo: Fred Dott, Hamburg
Forrest
2023, textiles and nylon cords on anti-slip net and painted wood, 162 × 152 cm
Photo: Marcus Schneider
DETAIL OF Forrest
2023, textiles and nylon cords on anti-slip net and painted wood, 162 × 152 cm
Photo: Fred Dott, Hamburg
Grids and Flowers
2023, various works, wall painting, metal, foam rubber, dimensions variable
Installation view Sexauer Gallery, Berlin
Photo: Fred Dott, Hamburg
Grids and Flowers
2023, various works, wall painting, metal, foam rubber, dimensions variable
Installation view Sexauer Gallery, Berlin
Photo: Fred Dott, Hamburg
Grids and Flowers
2023, various works, wall painting, metal, foam rubber, dimensions variable
Installation view Sexauer Gallery, Berlin
Photo: Fred Dott, Hamburg
Grids and flowers 1
2023, acrylics on cardboard with household objects, 44 × 31.7 cm
Photo: Marcus Schneider
Grids and Flowers
2023, various works, wall painting, metal, foam rubber, dimensions variable
Installation view Sexauer Gallery, Berlin
Photo: Fred Dott, Hamburg
Grids and Flowers
2023, various works, wall painting, metal, foam rubber, dimensions variable
Installation view Sexauer Gallery, Berlin
Photo: Fred Dott, Hamburg
Flowers
2023, textiles and nylon cords on anti-slip net and painted wood, 162 × 150 cm
Photo: Marcus Schneider
Worms I
2023, textiles and nylon cords on anti-slip net and painted wood, 242 × 172 cm
Photo: Marcus Schneider
Worms II
2023, textiles and nylon cords on anti-slip net and painted wood, 162 × 150 cm
Photo: Marcus Schneider
Grids and Flowers
2023, various works, wall painting, metal, foam rubber, dimensions variable
Installation view Sexauer Gallery, Berlin
Photo: Fred Dott, Hamburg
Grids and Flowers
2023, various works, wall painting, metal, foam rubber, dimensions variable
Installation view Sexauer Gallery, Berlin
Photo: Fred Dott, Hamburg
Grids and Flowers
2023, various works, wall painting, metal, foam rubber, dimensions variable
Installation view Sexauer Gallery, Berlin
Photo: Fred Dott, Hamburg
(3) Grids and flowers 4
(4) Grids and flowers 2
(5) Grids and flowers 37
(6) Grids and flowers 3
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(30) Grids and flowers 35
all: 2023, acrylics on cardboard with household objects, 44 × 31.7 cm
all photos: Marcus Schneider
Grids and flowers 43
2023, acrylics on cardboard with household objects, 44 × 31.7 cm
Photo: Marcus Schneider
Grids and flowers 41
2023, acrylics on cardboard with household objects, 44 × 31.7 cm
Photo: Marcus Schneider
Grids and flowers 21
2023, acrylics on cardboard with household objects, 44 × 31.7 cm
Photo: Marcus Schneider
Grids and flowers 9
2023, acrylics on cardboard with household objects, 44 × 31.7 cm
Photo: Marcus Schneider
Grids and flowers 5
2023, acrylics on cardboard with household objects, 44 × 31.7 cm
Photo: Marcus Schneider
Grids and Flowers
2023, various works, wall painting, metal, foam rubber, dimensions variable
Installation view Sexauer Gallery, Berlin
Photo: Fred Dott, Hamburg
Landscape
2023, textiles and nylon cords on anti-slip net and lacquered wood, 174 × 208 cm
Photo: Marcus Schneider
DETAIL OF Landscape
2023, textiles and nylon cords on anti-slip net and lacquered wood, 174 × 208 cm
Photo: Fred Dott, Hamburg
Grids and Flowers
2023, various works, wall painting, metal, foam rubber, dimensions variable
Installation view Sexauer Gallery, Berlin
Photo: Fred Dott, Hamburg
Grids and flowers 29
2023, acrylics on cardboard with household objects, 44 × 31.7 cm
Photo: Marcus Schneider
Grids and Flowers
2023, various works, wall painting, metal, foam rubber, dimensions variable
Installation view Sexauer Gallery, Berlin
Photo: Fred Dott, Hamburg
Grids and Flowers
2023, various works, wall painting, metal, foam rubber, dimensions variable
Installation view Sexauer Gallery, Berlin
Photo: Fred Dott, Hamburg
Palmtree
2023, textiles and nylon cords on anti-slip net and painted wood, 242 × 172 cm
Photo: Marcus Schneider
Grids and Flowers
2023, various works, wall painting, metal, foam rubber, dimensions variable
Installation view Sexauer Gallery, Berlin
Photo: Fred Dott, Hamburg
Grids and Flowers
2023, various works, wall painting, metal, foam rubber, dimensions variable
Installation view Sexauer Gallery, Berlin
Photo: Fred Dott, Hamburg
(31) Preserved beauties 8
2023, Acrylic behind glass with mop and pipe cleaner, 40 × 30 cm
(32) Preserved beauties 9
2023, Acrylic behind glass with mop and pipe cleaner, 40 × 30 cm
(33) Preserved beauties 6
2023, Acrylic behind glass with pipe cleaner,
40 × 30 cm
(34) Preserved beauties 7
2023, Acrylic behind glass with pipe cleaner,
40 × 30 cm
(35) Preserved beauties 1
2023, Acrylic behind glass with pipe cleaner,
30 × 22 cm
(36) Preserved beauties 3
2023, Acrylic behind glass with pipe cleaner,
30 × 22 cm
(37) Preserved beauties 4
2023, Acrylic behind glass with pipe cleaner,
30 × 22 cm
(38) Preserved beauties 15
2023, Acrylic behind glass with pipe cleaner,
90 × 60 cm
(39) Preserved beauties 11
2023, Acrylic behind glass with mop and pipe cleaner,
100 × 70 cm
(40) Preserved beauties 16
2023, Acrylic behind glass with mop,
80 × 60 cm
(41) Preserved beauties 12
2023, Acrylic behind glass, 100 × 70 cm
(42) Preserved
beauties 14
2023, Acrylic behind glass with mop,
80 × 60 cm
(43) Preserved beauties 5
2023,Acrylic behind glass with pipe cleaner,
40 × 30 cm
(44) Preserved beauties 17
2023, Acrylic behind glass with mop and pipe cleaner, 51 × 71 cm
all photos by Fred Dott, Hamburg
Preserved beauties 15
2023, Acrylic behind glass with pipe cleaner, 90 × 60 cm
Photo: Fred Dott, Hamburg
Preserved beauties 5
2023,Acrylic behind glass with pipe cleaner, 40 × 30 cm
Photo: Fred Dott, Hamburg
Preserved beauties 8
2023, Acrylic behind glass with mop and pipe cleaner, 40 × 30 cm
Photo: Fred Dott, Hamburg