Love Colder Than Death (Wall pieces)

René Kemp

Info: An astute description of reality is an important language of realism. Spending time with things serves as entry point into their thingness, as well as the whirlpool of social situations they’re drenched in. Carefully observing, pacing your gaze becomes an inevitable privilege. René Kemp worked on a new body of works titled Wall Pieces, which are presented within the framework of this exhibition. The works depict fragmented elements of several wall structures. Their size is a middle format, no bigger than 80 to 60 cm and they are all painted with oil on stretched canvas. The forms appearing atop of these canvases occupy their entirety, giving the image of a cropped detail and thus alluding to missing pieces of the wall that didn’t make it to the surface. They are based on impressions of walls around the city the artist came across in his daily commute through Cologne, sometimes elsewhere, operating in a rather diaristic manner. Some are based on photographs send by friends and colleagues. (…)