Ulrike Möschel goes through the world with her antenna
permanently tuned to receive and allows places, objects and materials to become
the inspiration for her works. Through subtle artistic intervention, she robs
familiar things of their original function and lends them a highly poetic aura
by way of exchange. The artist’s installations frequently concern themselves
with motifs from childhood, upon which she inflicts material injuries: the two
ropes holding a swing suspended at adult height are frayed where our hands
would normally grip them; a slide that has been thrust literally up against the
wall points metaphorically to the caesuras that mark every biography. Such
injuries and voids in Möschel’s works are a decisive factor in their
reception. In Niemandsland (‘No man’s land’), lines of bluish white broken glass – a
material that was already present in the old industrial building serving as
exhibition space – trace their way across a surface delimited by concrete
pillars. In conjunction with the title, this gives rise to a paradox: a
territory marked out with meticulous precision but which no one can enter.
Indeed, Ulrike Möschel operates as a matter of course with the aspect of the
absurd: in Sonntagsabends (‘Sunday nights’), the projection of a shark swimming through
the deeps appears on the foil-covered window of an apartment building, seen
from the street outside.
Despite such assaults on the objects deployed for her works, there is never a sense of brutality in Möschel’s treatment of her materials. Instead, highly aesthetic ends are served throughout: the fraying rope of the swing recalls angel hair and the shards of glass are cleanly arranged into glittering, painterly lines. Through the sensitivity and clarity of her formal designs, the artist transforms material with mundane connotations into something precious.
Ulrike Möschel sometimes also works with language. Scraps of poetry and short sayings do not thereby explain the world, but simply evoke vague feelings of melancholy for which her establishment of potently atmospheric spaces prepared the ground. The artist leaves it entirely up to the recipient as to whether to delve more deeply into personal questions.
Julia Ritterskamp. In: Young Artists to keep an eye on, Köln, 2011.
Despite such assaults on the objects deployed for her works, there is never a sense of brutality in Möschel’s treatment of her materials. Instead, highly aesthetic ends are served throughout: the fraying rope of the swing recalls angel hair and the shards of glass are cleanly arranged into glittering, painterly lines. Through the sensitivity and clarity of her formal designs, the artist transforms material with mundane connotations into something precious.
Ulrike Möschel sometimes also works with language. Scraps of poetry and short sayings do not thereby explain the world, but simply evoke vague feelings of melancholy for which her establishment of potently atmospheric spaces prepared the ground. The artist leaves it entirely up to the recipient as to whether to delve more deeply into personal questions.
Julia Ritterskamp. In: Young Artists to keep an eye on, Köln, 2011.