Visual one-liners, fragility and sleek-but-natural materiality reign over Galleri Nicolai Wallner’s booth at FIAC. There is a luxury of material that contrasts with the many natural forms, summed up perfectly in the conflicted but balanced work of Jose Davila, taking centre stage in this space.
Galleri Nicolai Wallner are based in Copenhagen, and have an interestingly diverse set of artists on their repertoire. In this booth alone the work of Davila plays with the lighter work of David Shrigley — though they have more in common than you may originally think — alongside Joachim Koester, Elmgreen & Dragset, Jeppe Hein, A Kassen, Jakob Kolding and Jonathan Monk.
Slivers of white marble and transparent glass are strung up with black strings, hanging diagonally from the wall or else laid at the end of giant catapults, appearing to be frozen in motion directly before a loud shattering. This is the work of Davila, the central Joint Effort existing as a still-frame tussle between hardy and fragile, a large rock set on the course for destruction. Yet the stillness of the pieces create a sense of silence and calm, as tempting as it might be to pull back on the strings and send the rock hurling through the delicate sheet, you can’t help but find faith in the fact that this will never actually happen. It exists as the promise of some catastrophe that will never arrive, instead appearing in a state of balanced zen that Elephant has been trying and failing to reach for years.
Rich materials are continued in the works of A Kassen and Jeppe Hein, the high-shine sculptures of both artists playing with the physical limits of their material. Kassen’s Bronze Pour XI is a (not surprisingly) bronze sculpture that looks as liquid as it does solid, dripped like thick chocolate into a form that is actually a little reminiscent of a yogic downward dog — again with the zen. Hein’s Mirror Balloons with Tree Trunk float happily from delicate strings, free of care for their metal solidity. Contradictions become acquainted here, long standing oppositions are resolved.
Shrigley’s work is pure comedic simplicity; a big glazed ceramic egg, emblazoned with the phrase ‘egg’. No more words needed.
Galleri Nicolai Wallner can be found at 0.A15,FIAC
