BERNHARD SCHREINER / LEROY STEVENS
THE CLOSER YOU LOOK, THE BETTER WE LOOK.
31.03. - 19.05.2023
L-project.berlin
The closer you look, the better we look is Bernhard Schreiner's and LeRoy Stevens attempt to dissect and respond to a single photograph that was taken by LeRoy Stevens in Sarasota, Florida, in 2019. Building on their past collaborations rooted in sound and image, this installation marks a turning point into physical space.
Less interested in exactness, the artists favor an associative and translational collaging concept. Quasi-factual details within the image, contextual extensions, as well as possible (but imagined) narratives gain a physical presence. The artists' set-out to "show" a sound piece, derived from the visual world, dissected and with its components presented on a visual, physical, olfactory, and of course acoustic level.
Drawn to the idea of "repair", not in the sense of replacement or recreation, but in the "wrong repair", either being insufficient, wonky, or worse than when it was broken.
This phenomenon as the creation of something new, as opposed to the creation of the old, regular, right, sufficient repair has been important to Schreiner's recent work and conversations around this work.
Stevens' work often relates to geography, topology, and processes embedded into the "normal". Geographic displacement is a common thread in the artist's collaborations. In the gallery, fabrics and objects gleaned from the photograph appear in the space. Even the trash is displaced and has new meaning.
Lifted from American van advertisements from the 1970s and 80s that depict utility and leisure, the carpeted interiors evoke a nomadic living room.
The phrase Fun to get into elicits a head-scratch. When seen in/on a mirror together with oneself's reflected face, diverse implications and multiple meanings take shape. It's such a shallow statement, but it opens associations connected to the self and gains an almost psychoanalytical quality. At the same time it should be seen as: fun getting into the show, or getting interested in Ford and other vans, or literally the fun of exploring the interior of such a van. This may even imply breaking in or burglary.
Probed with microphones, the artists checked the van's heartbeat and ran diagnostics. They topped of the fluids and made some modifications along the way. The radio works and the neighbors are sorting their metal scraps. Tickets are on-sale for the Barenaked Ladies.
Bernhard Schreiner lives and works in Frankfurt am Main.
LeRoy Stevens lives and works in Los Angeles.