Kunstverein Hamburg presents Nathan Hylden Meanwhile on view until September 15, 2013.
The starting point of the current series of Nathan Hylden (b. 1978, lives in Los Angeles) is a photograph of the artist’s studio. It shows the silhouettes of various objects and pieces of furniture that belong to the place but have now been specially arranged and staged. Hylden silk-screened the photograph onto ten equally large, thin aluminum panels, minimally displacing the motif each time. The surfaces were then roughly painted in varying order, stacked on top of each other and treated with acrylic paint. This superimposition gave rise to visible traces of the neighboring panels, which indexically refer to one another and indicate the presence of other pictures. Each image has a predecessor and a successor, and is part of what seems like a never ending process of production. Hylden arranges the silver-grey and red works in such a way that the shadow play from his studio appears on the walls of the exhibition space: wall once again becomes wall. The working situation of his studio becomes a part of the exhibition as a painting; the site of production becomes that of presentation. This intermingles two separate areas and brings about the depiction of an original. For the viewer the series of aluminium panels becomes a cinematic sequence, in which the wandering silhouettes portray the passing of time. In these works, Hylden synchronizes time and space, addresses the conditions and possibilities of painting, and experiments with various carrier media and how they interact with different layers of paint.
Nathan Hylden
Meanwhile
Until September 15, 2013
Der Kunstverein, since 1817.
Klosterwall 23
20095 Hamburg
www.kunstverein.de
