Noumenon

Alicja Kwade and Kris Martin act continuously on the rules of perception. They sculpturally examine preconceived notions of ontology, challenging the order of things and the impact on the construction of our knowledge.

Noumenon is etymological based on the greek word nous, understanding, mind. First mentioned in Platos Politeia, it marks a world of ideas known to the philosophical mind, in contrast to the phenomenal realm, the visual world. In the Kantanian Philosophy it became a thing, which can only be thought, not sensually captured and is remarked unknowable.

Kris Martin adds indications of individuality and historical value to industrially developed and serially mass produced heads. Styrofoam faces are deformed and destructed and turned into bronze, to be presented as busts. By doing so he creates personalized figures, which seem to be eaten up by time. Titled as 'Beredsamkeitssperre' and 'Erinnerungsvakuum' are referring to the missing spots in their faces and gaps in memory.

Alicja Kwade similarily deals with aspects of materiality, mass and time. Like Kris Martin she uses products of mass production, e.g. Kaiser-Idell lamps, and morphs them into objects with an almost human character, with feelings like 'angst' and thus ensuing behavior. By reshaping familiar objects, she reflects to the phenomenal appearance of things as well as to their non-visual essence. In 'Kaminuhr' Kwade disassembles and classifies every integral element of a mantlepiece clock. According to their material these fragments are separated, pulverized and shown in preserving jars. In another piece a mirror, art historical symbol of self-awareness and evanescence, melts down the wall modifying its physical condition.

Alicja Kwades and Kris Martins works proceed to a non-phenomenal sphere. They both generate  artificial continuance , which reveal to the construction of time and its measurement. The alteration and declination of shape becomes a metamedial modus – oscillating between substance and essence.