robin rhode at haus der kunst munich

Robin Rhode, Untitled (Street Light), 2006, © Robin Rhode

Did I ever tell you I love the work of south africa born artist Robin Rhode? Yes, I guess I already told you here and here ;-) He is the nearly husband of a very good friend of mine and father to their child. They live in Berlin right now and when I'm in Berlin I most likely stay in their house. Well, Robin has a solo exhibition at Haus der Kunst starting tonight with a performance and I'm going to make the three hours car ride there to see it. I'm so excited. Even more because of the fact that I'm going to the new American Apparel store here in Heidelberg before that to get something nice to wear (since my real latex pants ripped off the other day, I'm planning to get the "fake" ones from aa)...

Pressrelease:

In baseball, a team immediately leaves the playing field following a walk off home run. For Robin Rhode the walk off is the last painting in a series or the last line of a drawing, the thing that sets the tone for the entire work. With this final line or painting, he releases the viewer from the work or series.

Robin Rhode, Candle, 2007 (Filmstill) © Robin Rhode

Robin Rhode draws a candle and tries to blow it out; he paints a bicycle and tries to move it; he sits down in front of a white wall and plays the drums, which he has painted in black paint on that very wall. This combination of drawing and performance is characteristic of his work. The artist also photographs or films himself during these actions, from either above or frontally. His means of expression thus also include, in addition to performance, photographic series, slide projections, digital animation and films.

Robin Rhode, Wheel of Steel, 2006, © Robin Rhode

Robin Rhode was born in Cape Town in 1976. He belongs to a generation of post apartheid artists that "very quickly took care of herself without waiting for the approval of the previous generation, that of its teachers," as Thomas Boutoux stated. Rhode attended film school following the completion of his studies in fine arts at Witwatersrand Technikon in Johannesburg. In 1997 he began to integrate objects in his works that he drew in chalk on walls or floors. For the artist, chalk is a material that is associated with memory: "Chalk was stolen from the classroom and the senior boys would draw elementary objects, such as candles and bicycles, directly onto the walls of the toilets. The younger pupil was then forced to interact with the drawn object, either trying to blow out the candle or to ride the bicycle." (Robin Rhode, 2005)

read the whole pressrelease here (pdf)