Verena Issel

Older works/ archive

various places

Older works/ archive

A collection of older installations, films, and publications that I don’t consider central to my work, but still hold dear — perhaps they'll reveal a different side of my practice you haven’t seen yet. Hehe

INGREDIENTS

Yesterdays projections

Like China in My Hands
Various materials, wall size 4 m x 4 m
Installation view at Galerie Melike Bilir, Hamburg, 2012

KdeE
A site specific project on Hannover: the brutalistic Ihme center, former bread factory, and Kurt Schwitters‘ Merzbau.Various materials and works combined, f.ex. bread, salt dough, foam, wood, neon signs, drawings and collagues and more. Size of the window 250 cm × 370 cm. Installation view KESTNER GESELLSCHAFT Hannover, 2017

Photography Raimund Zakowski

Outside with the Cuties (Gorgons)
2020, construction foam, acrylic lacquer, 5m x 5m
Exhibition view Botschaft, Uferhallen Berlin

MANNERISM TODAY: Giuseppe Arcimboldo
approx. 3.50 m × 3 m × 2 m, PVC flooring, wood, paper, plastic
Installation view Galerie Ephemer, Hamburg, 2013

13000
2004, documentary, MiniDV, 18 min.

An experimental documentary about a fish factory in Norway. The viewer follows the journey of the fish from the water into the factory, its processing there, and finally the packing of the fish into boxes. The slow-paced images focus exclusively on the fish and the machinery of the factory; humans play a subordinate role and are barely visible.
The events, the ambivalence between machines and living beings, and the industrial death of the fish remain uncommented—only the sounds of the factory are heard.

Gut Schuss!
2007, documentary film, 38 min., Mini DV

An experimental documentary about a traditional shooting festival in a village in Lower Saxony. The seven days of the festival, including all preparations and the shooting competition, are documented and accompanied by excerpts from the old club chronicle. Participants are interviewed. Long takes alternate with very short ones.

Retail Therapy
2017, mixed media
Installation at Trafo Kunsthall Asker (Oslo), Norway
Photo: Jens Hamram

Retail Therapy (detail): Theory of the young girl
2017, chalk on wood, 100 cm x 70 cm
Installation at Trafo Kunsthall Asker (Oslo), Norway
Photo: Jens Hamram

Retail Therapy
2017, mixed media
Installation at Trafo Kunsthall Asker (Oslo), Norway
Photo: Jens Hamram

TO BAR

The bar area – prominently and openly situated between the two exhibition spaces – holds an unexpectedly significant spatial, social, and financial role at KV Leipzig. This transitional and communal space is now being reimagined and interrogated by artist Verena Issel through a new spatial installation, which will also serve as a bar situation for the Kunstverein for an indefinite period.

Through architectural interventions, drawings, wall objects, and performative instructions, the installation reflects on and disrupts structural inequalities in our (art) world regarding working conditions and compensation. A mural invites visitors to decide whether they feel structurally disadvantaged in terms of their working conditions. Depending on their response, they are asked to join the corresponding drink queue at the bar. Unaware, customers will encounter different drink prices – drinks will be more expensive or cheaper based on their positioning.

Each drink also comes with a sticker, providing statistical insights into inequalities in the art world, such as those related to gender, origin, and more.

The bartenders, working hidden behind a wall, offer conversations and discussions on these topics.

To Bar oscillates between comfort zone and provocation – (gainful) work remains in the shadows.

(Text for the exhibition at Kunstverein Leipzig, 2018)

Anna Jehle

TO BAR

Each drink also comes with a sticker, providing statistical insights into inequalities in the art world, such as those related to gender, origin, and more.

The bartenders, working hidden behind a wall, offer conversations and discussions on these topics.

To Bar oscillates between comfort zone and provocation – (gainful) work remains in the shadows.

(Text for the exhibition at Kunstverein Leipzig, 2018)

Anna Jehle

TO BAR

Each drink also comes with a sticker, providing statistical insights into inequalities in the art world, such as those related to gender, origin, and more.

The bartenders, working hidden behind a wall, offer conversations and discussions on these topics.

To Bar oscillates between comfort zone and provocation – (gainful) work remains in the shadows.

(Text for the exhibition at Kunstverein Leipzig, 2018)

Anna Jehle

TO BAR

Each drink also comes with a sticker, providing statistical insights into inequalities in the art world, such as those related to gender, origin, and more.

The bartenders, working hidden behind a wall, offer conversations and discussions on these topics.

To Bar oscillates between comfort zone and provocation – (gainful) work remains in the shadows.

(Text for the exhibition at Kunstverein Leipzig, 2018)

Anna Jehle

MANNERISM TODAY: Giuseppe Arcimboldo
2013, PVC flooring, wood, paper, plastic, approx. 3.5 m × 3 m × 2 m
Installation view Galerie Ephemer, Hamburg

Zurück zum Beton/ Fade to grey
Installation view „Notausgang am Horizont“, Bremen, 2014

Yesterdays projections
2018, felt tip pen on dia frames, projected on paper, dimensions variable
Installation view KOOSHK, Teheran

Silent Utopia (Murals of a Tourist)
2018, dimensions variable, mixed media
Installation view, ZARYA Center for Contemporary Art, Vladivostok (RU)

Das magische Auge
2010, wood, cardboard, plastic, wall paint, ceramics, glass, approx. 5 m × 5 m × 4 m
Installation view HfBK Hamburg

Call. A Zine On Art and Feminism
160 pages, published in March 2013 in an edition of 500 copies as a self-publishing project.
group project with various artists, founded by Verena Issel and Gitte Jabs

ADIEU
2011, graduation exhibition, HFBK Hamburg

Bewerbungsmappe
(My application portfolio for the art academy / Foldable folder with a folding plan for a folding chair)
2011, pastel chalk on cardboard, framed in wood, 190 cm x 140 cm,

ADIEU
2011, graduation exhibition, HFBK Hamburg

Exhibition view, "DEADPOINT," Galerie Ölfrueh, 2012
in collaboration with Stefan Hauberg.
Left: Badminton racket. Height 120 cm. Wood, wire, plastic, adhesive tape, 2012.
Center: Ramp. A wooden ramp was built over the existing staircase; one had to haul themselves up the very steep incline to the upper floor using a rope. That’s where the bar was. Stefan Hauberg, 2012.
Right: Deadpoint. (Mountains). Foam, torn. 2012.

Match (Tennis)
2012, salad cucumbers, nails, adhesive tape, thread, plastic mesh
Installation view Galerie Oel- Früh, 250 cm x 120 cm

Match (Tennis) (DETAIL)
2012, salad cucumbers, nails, adhesive tape, thread, plastic mesh
Installation view Galerie Oel- Früh, 250 cm x 120 cm

Badminton racket
2012, wood, wire, plastic, tape, height 120 cm

Match (Badminton)
2012, pencil, watercolor, and toned paper on cardboard, 70 cm x 50 cm

Match (Badminton)
2012, foam, wood, wall paint, painting, ceramics
Installation view Gallery Oel-Früh

Cargo
2013, installation view Kunstraum Michael Barthel, Leipzig

Ashes of American Flags (Cultural Resistance)
2014, soil paint on stone floor as well as acrylic paint on stone
Installation view at Kunstraum Michael Barthel

Die für die Besucher getöpferten Aschenbecher