all works by Thomas Chapman as a part of the exhibition Glisten at PSM-Gallery, Berlin / Photos by artfridge / Courtesy PSM-Gallery, Berlin
Sometimes a gallery visit transforms into an experience of another intellectual world. It can can pull you out of reality and leave you in a time-less space. I had this experience today at PSM-Gallery, who currently exhibit the solo-show "Glisten" by the 1975 born Thomas Chapman.
The center piece "Sound Absorber Suite" suggests itself as a temple of both, a retreat and an acoustic studio. Soft techno beats and voices from several people, namely Chapman's self-composed song GLISTEN, are buzzing out of the accessible collage-sculpture. The inside's floor is covered by a blue carpet and the walls are plastered with lyrics and notes. Formerly an inventory from Chapman's Berlin studio, the "Suite" now represents an artifact of a creative workshop. Two sculptures take a similar shape as the installation in the center: Quite experimental, yet minimal in their colour, the objects grow out of the wall and take the shape of an alien relict.
While the exhibition displays quite miscellaneous working series, the coherence is mostly based on the generally cold atmosphere and on Chapman's choice of patterns, which reoccur throughout the works. Vertical slats, applied with different materials like cotton and carpets, polygons and triangles, in wood, plastic or plexi-glass. Every pattern, however, is broken and seems to seek for imperfection: An unfinished, perhaps even destructed feel accompanies the pieces. Every work is made out of found objects, that Chapman collects, and subsequently rearranges, so that the final result equals a three dimensional collage.
It is not hard to guess, where Chapman found his material: Born in San Diego, the artist now lives and works in Berlin – and Berlin is all over the objects. Retro-carpets, the colour of depressingly grey concrete, graffiti tags, old fashioned chair covers. Just a bit of bling bling here and there – some sparkling plastic diamonds, some fancy neon colours. Poor and sexy. Isn't that what they call Berlin? But GLISTEN, however, is not an exhibition about Berlin. Instead, Chapman seems to have already left the visual reality - his art documents a recycling process that eventually ends in a new beginning, a futuristic architectural environment, a hybrid of theatrical and dismal appearance, the artist's own deconstructed never-never land.
THOMAS CHAPMAN
7 Jun 2013 - 20 Jul 2013
Finissage: 20 Jul / 19h / including a music act by PRE-Be-UN at 21.30h
PSM
Köpenicker Strasse 126
10179 Berlin
Opening Hours: Tuesday - Saturday / 12 - 18h
all works by Thomas Chapman as a part of the exhibition Glisten at PSM-Gallery, Berlin / Photos by artfridge / Courtesy PSM-Gallery, Berlin