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Alexej
Meschtschanow
OPENING 02.04.2005,
6pm
05.04. - 14.05.2005
Alexej Meschtschanow uses small but significant modifications to create his
objects. Chairs, tables, cupboards, and beds are raised up on metal supports,
so that they no longer rest directly on the ground. The underlying framework
is screwed to the pieces of furniture through their feet, and the extensions
function like prosthetics. Painted a uniform grey color and supplied with
rubber caps, the supports give a clinical, sterile impression. A close look
reveals that the radius, size, and strength of the round pipes of the supports
and the type of rubber cap differ in each object. The construction of the
base frame is adapted for each model, and the form of the found wooden furniture
is mirrored in the esthetic of the painted steel pipes.
Despite this attempt at streamlining, the addition is clearly identifiable
as an alien component. Together with its respective piece of furniture it
forms a new composite item that eliminates the original functionality of
object. This new entity is elevated to another level, in which the everyday
object is still recognizable, although it has been transformed into a display
item – that now stands on its own.
The pieces of furniture used by the artist were mass produced wares in their
respective eras. Often he chooses to work with furniture from the former
turn of the century – an era that still retains the sense of a petit-bourgeois
world of the past. For Alexej Meschtschanow the relicts from "the good
old days" do not provide a source of comfort or reminiscence; their
modified appearance is unsettling. The direct timeline stretching back to
an earlier historical period is given a twist by the artist's interventions.
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