LONDON.- Florian Roithmayr presents a new body of sculptural works in Gallery 3 which observe material transformation and transference in the processes of making. Capturing the unforeseeable gestures which occur in the interstice between mould and cast, the sculptures embody the consequences of one surface, material or body yielding another. The configuration of the exhibition changes daily at the inclination of the front of house team as Roithmayr sets up parameters before relinquishing control of the works. with, and, or, without is Roithmayr’s largest solo show to date and his first in a London public gallery.
Interested in labour that renders itself invisible on completion, Roithmayr has previously undertaken intensive internships, shadowing engineering specialists, such as a car surface decorator and a concrete beautician, who manipulate materials to enact beyond their physical expectations. Learning from the meticulous attention to detail in these processes, with, and, or, without is deeply embedded in the micro-processes of Roithmayr’s own studio practice as maker.
Questioning the delineation of mould, cast, and object as elements separated in time, the works collapse process-based divisions in the moment of production. Setting-up circumstances within which his works materialise, he then allows materials and the sculptures their own agency. Liquid concrete competes with injected expanding foam as each solidifies in unison, whilst itinerant cast objects act as the syntax of the installation, activating and reordering the space between works: snuggling up to sculptures, accumulating, irritating, or withdrawing. Suspended, stacked or resting on one another, carefully balanced tensions and pressures hold the sculptures in form, drawing attention to the constant yet invisible states of flux at play in the materials Roithmayr employs.
Based around anatomy as a process of incision and dissection, layers are peeled back to reveal further layers in a perpetual unsatisfied curiosity of the unknown. Constructed from heuristic discovery and speculative consequences, the sculptures act not as discrete objects but as the representation of an accumulation of research, process and production.
Florian Roithmayr (born 1976, Germany; lives and works in London). Recent solo exhibitions include: Service, MOTINTERNATIONAL, Brussels BE (2015); Matter of Engagement, Site Gallery, Sheffield UK (2014); Treignac Project, France; BURG with Alexander Heim, Laure Genillard Gallery, London; Assault, THE SCHTIP, Sheffield (all 2013). Selected recent group shows include: Annals of the Twenty-Ninth Century and The Influence of Furniture on Love, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridgeshire UK (both 2014); The Y, Rowing Projects, London (2013); £5.34, Carl Freedman, London (2013); Fifteen, S1 Artspace, Sheffield, UK (2011); Bold Tendencies IV, Hannah Barry Gallery, London (2010).
He was included in New Contemporaries (2006) and has undertaken numerous residencies including British School in Rome, International Archaeological Project Sudan, and Helsinki International Artists Programme (HIAP). He is represented by MOTINTERNATIONAL, London and Galerie Neue Alte Brücke, Frankfurt.
