Anina Schenker

Heads and Thoughts

Curated by Marion Wild

Dates: 8 Sep 05 - 21 Oct 05

C3 Gallery is pleased to announce Anina Schenker’s first solo show in New York. The artist has widely exhibited in her native Switzerland, as well as in Germany and Russia. She is currently spending a year of studies in New York as the recipient of a grant awarded by the Yvonne-Lang-Chardonnens Foundation.

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Anina Schenker is best known for her video work in which she is her own subject, mostly with closeups of her face. She focuses on routine body movements that she performs while being filmed. The slow motion replay of a headshake for instance, in Slow I, dissolves her face into a stream of soft-edged, almost amorphous images. Lips turn into frayed shadows vaguely reminiscent of sausages, hair dissolves like cotton wadding, and contours disappear. Gotten Out of the Air shows the artist with her hair flapping and her features rapidly and violently changing. One moment her face is distorted and her youthful body turned into that of an old woman, yet in the next instant her normal appearance is restored. Anina Schenker visualizes what is invisible to the naked eye. With an almost savage openness and honesty that leaves no room for embellishment Schenker’s videos jolt our awareness in a way that is not easily forgotten: face and body, we realize, have their unknown, dark, and almost fearful aspects. In sharpening the viewer’s sense and sensibility, the artist seems to suggest that we listen for the notes in between, the less than obvious shadings. In raising questions about the source of movement her videos also prompt us to see ourselves as actors with mental and physical states that merit closer attention.

1+1+1+, another video piece, has a slightly different character: composed of 230 portraits from the first 30 years of the artist’s life it casts a fresh eye on change, development and growth. The presentation draws the viewer into a dialog with the work and with himself/herself.

Lack of costly equipment and space and an urge for self-reflection awakened by the opportunity of taking up temporary residence in a different city on a new continent have led the artist to embrace a medium that she rarely uses otherwise: drawing. The two installations Brains and Thoughts are closely related. Resulting from an exercise in patience and the effort to process new impressions, Brains has the serenity of a meditation. Thoughts, on the other hand, consists of journal entries reduced to simple lines – thoughts in the abstract.

Anina Schenker will continue to live and work in New York City until the end of the year.

Translated from German by Dieter Kuhn

About the artist:

Born 1971 in St.Gallen, Switzerland



Background

2005	Cambridge, MA	MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Program in High Speed Videography for Motion Analysis
2004–05		lives and works in New York City on a grant from the Yvonne Lang – Chardonnens Foundation
2003	Zürich, Switzerland	degree in visual arts, HGKZ
1999-03	Zürich, Switzerland	School of Art and Design Zürich, HGKZ, degree program visual arts
2002	Zürich, Switzerland	founding member and director of the not-for-profit space garage, Zürich
1993-98		41 stage designs for professional theater companies
1995-97	St. Gallen, Switzerland	founding member and director of the not-for-profit space HERRMANN in the Bernegg tunnel
1992		opens her own studio as stage designer, stage painter and costume designer
1988-92		formation as a stage painter at Atelier Enrico Caspari, Wil, SG; internships at Zürich Opera, Schauspielhaus Zürich, theater St.Gallen, Bregenzer Festspiele, theater Basel, theater Bern, Bayrisches Staatstheater, and at Bavaria Filmstudio Munich

Exhibitions

2005	Schwerin, Germany	Aus der Sicht der Schweiz / Swiss Miss, Staatliches Museum
2005	St.Gallen, Switzerland	Erklär mir Liebe, Bahnhof
2004	Zürich, Switzerland	The Lucky Number, Ausstellungsraum 25
2004	Bahnhofstrasse, Effretikon	Die Bahnhofstrasse lebt
2004	Zürich, Switzerland	Video, Video, Film, Ausstellungsraum 25
2004	Teufen AR	appenzeller frauentag, Zeughaus
2003	Zürich, Switzerland	vernisFINIS, sage
2003	Zürich, Switzerland	kunst szene, Toni
2003	St.Gallen, Switzerland	Heimspiel, Kunsthalle, Kunstmuseum
2003	Zürich, Switzerland	behind the wall, Roentgenraum
2003	St.Gallen, Switzerland	Hüllen, 200 St.Gallerinnen, Kantonsjubiläum, Textilmuseum
2003	Zürich, Switzerland	Anker, Kunstsalon
2003	Zürich, Switzerland	studier ende, Diplomausstellung, HGK
2003	St.Gallen, Switzerland	schenker, schenker und schenker, exex
2002	Zürich, Switzerland	Eröffnung, art one
2002	Winterthur, Switzerland	modo Video, modo
2002	Kassel, Germany	Bateubleu, Garage im Fundus
2002	St.Gallen, Switzerland	träum davon, exex, Visarte
2002	Zürich, Switzerland	Was für ein Theater, ZKB, Schiffbau
2002	Zürich, Switzerland	Eröffnung, garage
2002	Zürich, Switzerland	K 3, Maag Areal
2002	Basel, Switzerland	weder verwandt noch verschwägert, Kaskadenkondensator
2002	Geneva, Switzerland	Diadrome, Ecole des Beaux-Arts
2001	Zürich, Switzerland	Box 1 – 4, roentgenraum
2001	Winterthur, Switzerland	Ort der Ausstellung, Kunsthalle
2001	Zürich, Switzerland	Diadrome, Kaserne
2001	Zürich, Switzerland	Promotion, HGKZ
2001	Zürich, Switzerland	Unterwasser, Museum Bellerive
2000	Petersburg, Russia	Characteristics of the Cold, Galerie 21
1999		Paysages Mentaux, CAN Centre d'art Neuchâtel
1999	Frauenfeld, Switzerland	Mentale Landschaften, Shed im Eisenwerk
1999	Zürich, Switzerland	kunstFABRIKaktion, Shedhalle
1999	Petersburg, Russia	Kukart, Puschkin
1998	St.Gallen, Switzerland	Ostschweizer Kunstschaffen, Kleines Kunsthaus
1998	Pontresina, Switzerland	Überbrücken, Hotel Saratz
1995	St.Gallen, Switzerland	Jetzt, Klubraum Herrmann SG

Video Screenings

2004	Boswil, Switzerland	Popstarz, Künstlerhaus
2004	Bern, Switzerland	Museumsnacht, Video - Lounge, Kunstmuseum
2004	Bern, Switzerland	VID, Dampfzentrale
2004		Frauentag, Kino Heiden, AI
2003	Bern, Switzerland	Sommerfest, 15 Jahre Kunstkanal
2003	Bern, Switzerland	VID, Review, Dampfzentrale
2003	Zürich, Switzerland	K 3, K4 Videoscreening
2003	Boswil, Switzerland	fleur du mal, Künstlerhaus
2003	Bern, Switzerland	VID, Dampfzentrale
2003	Zürich, Switzerland	bad Hotel, Gessnerallee
2002	Zürich, Switzerland	P 22, e-board, HB
2002	Bern, Switzerland	VID, Dampfzentrale
2002	Zürich, Switzerland	Index, Kanzlei
2001	Basel, Switzerland	Looppool 4, Cargo Bar an der Liste 01
2000		Art Kino, Art Frankfurt
1998	Basel, Switzerland	Videobar, Kaskadenkondensator

Publications

2003		Kunst im Unprivaten
2003	St.Gallen, Switzerland	blütenweiss bis rabenschwarz, 200 St.Gallerinnen, 200 Jahre Kanton
2003	Zürich, Switzerland	Zeitung, Diplompublikation
2001	Zürich, Switzerland	Unterwasser, Museum Bellerive
2001	Winterthur, Switzerland	Ort der Ausstellung, Kunsthalle

Awards

2003

Yvonne Lang - Chardonnens study grant