Mira Schendel

Audio Commentary

In the 1930s Schendel was caught up in the racial laws established by Mussolini and had to escape to Sarajevo and eventually Brazil. The works we see here are actually from the 1960s having begun as an artist in Brazil in the 50s. What I love about this piece is that she goes back to the simple elemental line of a circle as a gesture. And it's done on this rice paper that was given to her as a present. She didn't quite know how to use this paper as it kept on breaking and tearing. But eventually she found a way in which she would adhere the paper on the plexiglass with oil. Then with her nail she would trace a very elemental gesture. What is fascinating about this particular piece is that she is encountering a problem that will transfix her for longer.

Cecilia Brunson Projects

Untitled (from the series Monotipias)

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Curator

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Karin Lambrecht

Audio commentary

This is the central, monumental piece of the show. You can see Karen's vocabulary and iconography throughout. The cross this time is woven in as a copper structure and alongside that can see another faint cross made out of charcoal. You can see how the canvas is imbued in this acrylic paint that has been laid on the floor with the paint allowed drip into the fabric, and it's so beautifully presented with the single haunting single word "Winter". 

Winter

When Karin showed me this work I felt it had to be the main image of the show. It reflected what the whole world was going at that moment in the midst of a pandemic. It felt like winter no matter what part of the world you were in. We were all in a state of cold introspection and quietness.  As our conversations continued with Karin I also understood a whole body of her work dedicated to the Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. This is a novel, reflected in her works, that portrays a state of mind as well as a state of a physical illness, set as it is in hospital wards. The novel conjures a feeling of sublime stillness from the setting, but equally of its time - the world being about to change because the Second World War. Just as back then this work reflected a world about to change into something completely unprecedented, our world was also in the midst of this monumental profound shift.

Untitled

I had never seen Karin Lambrecht's works on paper until my recent visit to her Broadstairs  studio. She brought out this paper, so beautifully embroidered with red thread. I couldn't help myself but think about the relationship with Mira Schendel. Both use the motif "Winter" and have that close relationship with the translucency of paper. 

This serene yellow piece forms something like an epilogue to the show. It includes all of the Karen's languages that constitute a sort of personal linguistic DNA -  Portuguese, English, German, French. It's a beautiful piece and a diptych that she made by tearing apart pieces from a larger work, letting us just dream alongside her, through these elemental words.

The illustrated inclusion of the written word is a vital part of
Lambrecht’s work; words appear in all of the works in this exhibition. Her
use of words — which can be written in, obscured, re-written and
sometimes changed entirely — flows between English, Portuguese and
German, in what appears to be a method of physical and psychological
self-location and understanding.

Amar [Love]

The shape of the cross also recurs throughout Lambrecht’s work,
appearing both in the form of crucifixes and square crosses. Sometimes
these crosses are written into the work as the letter “t”, at other times
they are physically attached in the form of copper strips which pierce the
canvas. This variation alludes to the ways Lambrecht attempts to occupy
and explore a middle ground between the religious and the secular.
Although not a religious person herself, Lambrecht is interested in religious
tradition as well as alternative associations with the cross as a symbol of
healing and health. For Lambrecht, the cross adds an element of comfort
to her work; the cross’s medical associations signal proximity to a place or
person that can help or heal.

Dear Friend

Sol (Sun)

 I love this work because I can almost feel Mira Schendel's hand tracing these letter I's, or cubes or structures that we try to read into this image, imagining her testing to see if the paper tears or if it holds itself together. Looking closely you can see how how fragile the paper is and the exquisite sense of the translucency of the paper, the artistic exercise and the whole structure lifts off the piece. 

These are made by Mira Schendel with letraset and ink and belong a little later - in the 1970s. They interest me because she uses language and numbers in a poetic way but it has beyond this - in my view - a very strong political message of dismantling power alongside language. And in that respect I find these works very relevant for the times we live in now. Our time, where falsehood and truth has become less distinguishable, less clear and transparent. So this simple, visual conundrum offers a beautiful poetic space to set out the enigma of human communication. 

Untitled (from the series Toquinhos)

This work is from Schendel’s series of
Toquinhos and were made in 1972. These works consist of square and
rectangular shapes made with Ecoline ink, alongside Letraset letters and
punctuation marks. Schendel often worked with language and she viewed
the symbol (or letter) as something ‘ordinary, devoid of emotion’. She
included handwritten or painted words, floating letters, symbols and
quoted text in her works. Having aspired to be a poet, her work has an
undeniably poetic aspect to it. However, she felt unable to express herself
entirely with words. She once said in an interview, ‘If I could speak or
write, I think I would not paint or draw’. This serves as an insight into the
experimental, searching way in which Schendel used language in her work
and the subsequent textual dislocation exhibited in the Toquinhos.

I have been fascinated by the work of Karin Lambrecht, and was so delighted to be able to visit after her move to Broadstairs, a coastal town near us in Kent, England. 

After seeing her latest work I had the impulse to make a paired exhibition alongside those of Mira Schendel in our viewing room. It felt like an interesting way to introduce and contextualise Karin's first exhibition in the UK. I particularly love her series of monochromatic ink on paper works and how they dialogue with the Monotype and Toquinhos series from Schendel's Monotypes and Toquinhos.

Cecilia Brunson Projects (CBP) was founded in 2013 to increase the visibility and understanding of Latin American artists and their role in global art movements

Mira Schendel and Karin Lambrecht

Mira Schendel and Karin Lambrecht