17 May – 24 June 2007
One in the Other is pleased to present the work of Günther Herbst in his first UK solo exhibition.
Herbst’s current paintings are a series of works based on homeless shelters that he has been photographing over a number of years. The materials and fibres that make up these shelters, and the way they are at odds with the surrounding architecture, or immediate environment, was the starting point for a series of works that soon depart from the premise of ‘studies’ . However, one cannot disregard the human element to these images. Homelessness is a morally difficult subject to deal with and by painting these images he hopes to confront the viewer, provoking them into looking at something we normally tend to ignore.
Herbst appropriates the language of history and contemporary painting practices and uses these as a transparent medium in order to comment on the subject matter. In the painting, High Holborn 2, he has quoted the style of Mondrian in order to comment on the mediation of the image and locate the work within the history of painting. “I am using these different art languages as a kind of systematic code in order for the original subject matter to operate more poignantly. My past and present work is an attempt by me, as an artist, to deal with issues relating to transience and ephemeral structure, and is meant as a reminder that human habitats are built upon the wilderness and our occupation of them is still precarious.”
Consider, at the same time, the importance of the ‘home’ to the housed population, fuelled by the deluge of home improvement programmes on television, the abundance of interior design and gardening magazines, and DIY stores. Yet, we seem to take our homes for granted, like our bodies, and are only reminded of their significance under circumstances such as house-moving, family rows, wars, fires, lost jobs, debt. ‘Many cultural theorists discuss the significance of the home as the most immediate environment in which the construction of personal identity through control over one’s own body takes place. In this context, homelessness can be defined as a dramatic loss of power over the way in which one’s identity is constructed, since the home no longer shields from the public gaze’. (Ledersteger-Goodfriend, 2001: 220)
Born in South Africa, Herbst studied in Germany, London and South Africa.
Agar Street 1/ Blue White Grey Red 2007
Acrylic on paper,
33 x 40cm
High Holborn 3 / White Red Blue Yellow 2007
Oil on canvas,
100 x 68cm
Mortimer Market / Grey Red Blue White 2007
Acrylic on paper,
35 x 42cm
New Oxford Street 2 / White Black Red 2007
Oil on canvas,
100 x 68cm