FLORIAN GRAF, exhibition view, do (Tower-House); 
mi (Portal-Gibbet); so (Flat-Storey), 2015
photo: Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, GUNNAR MEIER

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FLORIAN GRAF, exhibition view, so (Flat-Storey);
mi (Portal-Gibbet); do (Tower-House), 2015
photo: Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, GUNNAR MEIER

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FLORIAN GRAF, exhibition view, do (Vase); la (Vase); fa (Vase), 2015
photo: Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, GUNNAR MEIER

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FLORIAN GRAF, fa (Vase), 2015
photo: Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, GUNNAR MEIER

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FLORIAN GRAF, exhibition view, so (Flower); re (Man); si (Horse), 2015
photo: Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, GUNNAR MEIER

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FLORIAN GRAF, si (Horse), 2015
photo: Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, GUNNAR MEIER

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FLORIAN GRAF, re (Man), 2015
photo: Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, GUNNAR MEIER

all images courtesy the artist and Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen

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FlORIAN GRAF, whose work I’ve mentioned before, is now featuring a solo exhibition entitled Chamber Music at the Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen and for which he has developed an extensive and specific installation that intermingles artworks, everyday objects and performative gestures.

As much as his previous works, the Swiss artist has explored the potential – and failure – of ‘architectonic and social situations and their reciprocal interactions’. Playing on the notion of public, private and natural space, GRAF conceived three elemental forms which appear as a recurrent motif in the three rooms of the Kunsthalle in various materials, dimensions and different functions.

The first room revolves around the idea of public space, and features a monumental version of the three basic shapes. According to the press release, they can be described as architectonic elements such as columns, gateway, building and sculpture at the same time and evoke the feeling of moving through a town. The second space is all about the private sphere and displays elements of furniture as well as decorative items like a mirror, a lamp and three vases taking the form of the three components. Then, the last hall concerns the natural space but a very artificial one with three sculptures which look like a fountain, a gravestone and a flowerbed.

GRAF’s exhibition seems to be continuously defined by a controlled ambiguity; what we are allowed to view and experience, as well as a constant back-and-forth questioning between presence and absence, representation and abstraction, form and function, dimension and memory. Eventually Chamber Music plays meticulously with time, space and different modes of existence enabling the viewer to wander, both mentally and physically in these precise constructed environments.

Chamber Music byFlORIAN GRAF is on view at Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen until June 28, 2015

 

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