September 9 to November 25, 2017
Potsdamer Str. 97, 10785 Berlin

What is time? How can it be measured? Such philosophical questions lie at the heart of many of Fiete Stolte’s works. And yet the artist chooses not to simply introduce them in words but to present them instead to the viewer in form of aesthetic ideas, thus allowing them to freshly discover complex subjects through images and sensory experiences. Stolte’s most recent work ‘Vitreous Essay on Permanence’ is dedicated to infinity.

Starting point for Stolte’s large format polaroid works is the symbolically charged hourglass, an emblem for the passing of time. In his series of 50 Uniques, a selection of which will be on display at the exhibition, the artist at once manages to emphasise the uniqueness of the fleeting moment while simultaneously being able to capture the eternal flow of time.

With the help of a minor alteration – the hourglass has been cut open at the top and the bottom – Stolte is able to manipulate the everyday object to his own purposes: since the sand is no longer collected at the bottom of the vessel but caught by the artist’s hand the act of turning the hourglass has become obsolete. The familiar time interval, previously measured and determined by the hourglass, has ceased to exist. Instead of restricted intervals determining the time scale inside the closed system of the hourglass we now have linear motion.

The sand is again and again refilled from the top by the artist himself – a Sisyphaen task. Yet the physical intervention by the artist, who through the process of catching and replenishing the grains of sand has become part of the machine/hourglass, signifies much more: the ‘poetic touch’ slicing open and expanding our thoughts with one precise cut. The camera flash of the polaroid hasn’t just captured the ray of sand, or ray of time, but also the human being behind the photograph subjectively intervening in the universal concept of infinity.

For the further newly created sound installation ‘Abyss’ the artist has composed a ‘synthetic canon’: various recordings of grains of sand caught falling on different surfaces merge into a very special body of sound not necessarily possible to hear naturally otherwise. The actual experience of the sound differs from our internal expectations. Fiete Stolte manages to fine tune our perception towards an abstract concept, encouraging us to explore time with all our senses.

Text: Chrischa Venus Oswald

Image: Installation views, H. M. Klosterfelde Edition, Berlin

Please contact Alfons Klosterfelde at office@helgamariaklosterfelde.de for further information.
Click here for available artworks

‘Crossed Pencils’, 2012
Bronze
Approx. 4.5 x 2 x 13.5 cm
In a custom-made box
Certificate signed and numbered
Edition of 10

“Two pencils overlap each other to form an X in the pencil case inside the bag. This overlapping creates a focal center and represents contrariety. I see the X on the one hand as a marking, on the other as an obliteration, a symbol of both presence and absence. The contents are shown on the surface of the case, but beg to be picked up by hand.”

‘Suits’, 2012
2 custom-made suits (each with a jacket and trousers)
Made out of emergency blankets
Approx. 210 x 60 cm
In a custom-made box
Certificate signed and numbered
Edition: 10, I, I, I

“The suits represent a potential encasement for my absent body. Their surfaces enable reflections of the environment and reflections of the inner self. They are two-sided mirrors, and as a pair they constitute a polarity of two extremes. One protects from the cold, while the other protects from heat. The long arms and trouser legs of the tailored suits derive from the material’s original purpose as emergency blankets, their physical logic being subtended by my own”

Click here for available artworks