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Polished Performance, 2015

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Polished Performance, 2015

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Fit for Purpose (retail fantasy), 2014/2015

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Fit for Purpose (retail fantasy), 2014/2015

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VALENTINA STIEGER
at her studio, Zürich
March 2015

views from the exhibition Fit for Purpose at Kunsthaus Glarus, February 2015

all images © wfw

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VALENTINA STIEGER is a Swiss artist who opened the doors of her studio in Zürich to wfw in the beginning of March. Her atelier is situated a few minutes away from the city center, in the middle of a courtyard, on the first floor of a car garage. The space is bright, quiet and with a reasonable size for working there everyday. A few works in progress were also present at that time like the large-canvas works that have never been shown but that will be the subject of an upcoming book, a collection of clay casts of sneaker prints made for the exhibition at the Kunsthaus in Glarus as well as a series of brochure holders onto which she had applied transparent acrylic as a first attempt.

Working across sculpture, painting and ceramics, VALENTINA STIEGER explores the potentialities of high tech, industry and handicraft by using materials like construction products and everyday objects but also by playfully shifting the boundaries between formalism and functionality. Additionally VALENTINA STIEGER’s contemporary methodology of accumulating, and manipulating research material, as a source of both information and inspiration, is juxtaposed with materials and processes that are idiosyncratic and often homespun. For instance the fabrics that have been used for her canvas works are actually bed sheets from the nineties that she collects since a couple of years and which are now transformed into ornamental abstract wall works.

As an extension of the studio visit, a few images of her work presented in the group exhibition Fit for Purpose at the Kunsthaus Glarus are part of the feature. The pieces for the show combine geometric structures and more organic elements and refer to familiar forms such as domestic objects like tables or coat racks. By dismantling the borders between design, sculpture and installation art, these familiar forms are reinvented to reflect on the social, historical and psychological narratives embedded in everyday objects and situations.

Be sure to view Fit for Purpose at the Kunsthaus Glarus before it closes on May 3, 2015. VALENTINA STIEGER‘s doesn’t have a proper website yet but you can view some of her works here.

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