Approved: 12.10.2006

Clara S Rueprich

Artist, Film-maker

Approved: 12.10.2006

Through a deeply intuitive and personal approach to recording material, Rueprich has fused in recent works art historical narratives and painterly framing devices - together with patient observation, with the aim of capturing elements of the human condition and its relationship to the natural world.

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    Artist Statement

    Through a deeply intuitive and personal approach to recording material, Rueprich has fused in recent works art historical narratives and painterly framing devices - together with patient observation, with the aim of capturing elements of the human condition and its relationship to the natural world.

    In focusing on the hidden threat that lies behind scenes of perceived calm and tranquility, Rueprich's films concentrate on three strategies that elicit an emotional response from the viewer. Fundamentally her practice is entwined with the notion of time passing; of a slow progression of imagery or events - that goes hand in hand with the expectation upon the viewer to induce themselves within the realms of the artist's production. The tension or fine-line that becomes apparent in Rueprich's work between the interplay of a staged scene and one with a completely unpredictable outcome, is an equally important factor in her work. Lastly, the painterly composition of the shots in her films are intended to bring about similar responses to those one might have from paintings; little explosive or strained moments within contemplative or seductive scenarios.

    (Josh Lilley, 2010)

     

     

    What breathes?

    In his late work written in the mid-seventies, Experimentum Mundi, Ernst Bloch describes nature simply as the outside, where there is an enigmatic breathing, with the question „what breathes?“ occupying an impersonal gap. The outside definitely possesses shape. Nature is form without idea, the definite indefinite, in whose forms longing and history sediment. There is something that this outside, which we are afraid of and that elevates us, when it elevates itself, there is something in nature that gives it anima. The philosopher Bloch finds codes in the cosmos surrounding him, real codes, each possessing a different degree of signification; „most frequently that of the multiple signification of allegory, rarely the almost singular signification of the symbol.“

    What breathes? The art of Clara S. Rueprich confronts the observer with precisely these real codes in places where they initially have the appearance of foreign bodies. She creates portals, through which that which we are tempted to call nature can infiltrate. In so doing, she approaches her materials with respect, almost with religious awe, as though it were art, which had to serve them and not vice versa, creating artificial spaces, bestowing an aura upon the objects. Surfaces are not processed to the point of being unrecognisable, they retain the signature of their origins, they are not put on show as receptors for arbitrary projections, each develops its own beauty.

    What breathes? The surfaces on which the images in „connected“ (2001) appear are a medium of disappearance. Although the projections approach one another with the melting of the block of ice, in the moment they converge they will be gone. The technique of video comes to fruition when the idea of reality relinquishes its condition: the surface of projection. The thought that is enflamed upon contact with the image undergoes the direct limitation of its temporality and thus experiences itself as utopia. In Bloch's terms, codes such as ocean, plants, hands, a bare female torso, occur in Clara S. Rueprich's art rather as allegory than as symbol. What is meant can't be reduced to a singular signification.

    What breathes? In the selection of images, media and materials Clara S. Rueprich demonstrates that she is absolutely contemporary. With mastery, she makes use of the technical means of the present day, valorising them by combining them with nature or historical architecture. The observer's well-honed ability to recognise the foreign, unearthed from the dark outside, loses its certainty, becomes deconditioned. What breathes? Nature appears in the city generally as a projection, with the public space as the surface of this projection. But nature is in urban environments also a reminder, and remembering is given only to those with the knowledge of the deficiencies of the present and who secure their past. Anything else would be sentimentality. This knowledge enables Clara S. Rueprich to work with both emphatic and archaic images. An Oenothera (evening primrose) blossom, unfolding slowly and yet unusually quickly in real time, before closing again, and combining, in the eyes of the observer and in changing perspectives, with a female sex. These images radiate earnest silence, far from today's usual ironic doubling. The seriousness of her handling of material permits Clara S. Rueprich's works to extend beyond the temporal. The play with time acquires a surface, especially in the works in public spaces. In the here and now, past becomes visible as present, optimistically indicating future possibility. Vegetation periods. Cycles. Return.

    (Jan Kuhlbrodt, 2004)

    CV & Education

    Qualifications and training

    2006 - MA Fine Arts, Chelsea College of Art and Design, London

    2004 - Master class, Academy of Visual Arts, Leipzig/Germany

    2002 - Master class (corresponds to MA), Academy of Fine Arts, Nuremberg/Germany

    2001 - Postgraduate Diploma Art and public space, Academy of Fine Arts, Nuremberg

    1997 - Dipl. Ing. Landscape Architecture, University, Dresden/Germany

     

    Solo exhibitions

    2013 - "Waiting for Napoleon", Kunstverein Gallery Leipzig/Germany

    2012 - "Attempts on a still life", Kunstverein Gallery Linz

    2010 - "Waiting for Napoleon", Josh Lilley Gallery, London

    2003 - Bavarian State Award - Exhibition, Kunsthaus, Nuremberg (catalogue)

     

    Group exhibitions

    2017 - Das rätselhafte Verschwinden des Malers Alfred Partikels, Neues Kunsthaus Ahrenshoop, Germany

    2017 - Condition M, Art Bermondsey Project Space, London

    2015 - Travestie für Fortgeschrittene (Travesty for advanced level), Museum for Contemporary Art Leipzig (GFZK)

    2015 - Horizontal Standing, Off-Biennale Budapest/Hungary

    2014 - Last Friday Shorts, TAP Gallery, Southend on Sea

    2014 - Exile: A Living of Forest, The ONCA Gallery, Brighton

    2013 - Video screening, Gallery Januar, Bochum/Germany

    2011 - Last Friday Shorts - video art event, TAP, Old Waterworks Building, Southend on Sea

    2011 - The Animal Gaze, Sheffield Institute of Arts Gallery, Sheffield

    2010 - condition M , at “Souvenirs from Earth” , (Video-Art-TV-channel)

    2010 - Gifted, Josh Lilley Gallery, London

    2009 - Marler Video-Kunst-Preis, ZKMax (ZKM Karlsruhe), München/Germany

    2009 - Modern nature, K3 Zürich, Zürich/ Switzerland

    2009 - The Animal Gaze, Plymouth Arts Centre, Plymouth/UK

    2009 - Video-Art-Award of Marl, Gallery KOBRO + Gallery BLOK, Lodz/Poland

    2008 - Fullscreen, MedienKunstForum, Hannover/Germany

    2008 - Auf den Hund gekommen, Kino im Sprengel, Hannover/Germany

    2008 - The Animal Gaze, Unit 2 Gallery, London (catalogue)

    2008 - Video-Art-Award Exhibition , Skulpturenmuseum, Marl/Germany (catalogue)

    2008 - Workflow, DASA Ex-Center, Dortmund/Germany

    2007 - Animal, Red Gate Gallery, London

    2007 - FORM, Art fair, London

    2007 - Sexwork: Kunst Mythos Realität, Neue Gesellschaft fuer Bildende Kunst (NGBK), Berlin (catalogue)

    2006 - ...there's no place like home, Homestead Gallery, London

    2006 - Air Video, AiR Space Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent/UK

    2006 - Final Show, Chelsea College of Art and Design, London (catalogue)

    2006 - Kaufrausch, Theater der Jungen Welt, Leipzig/Germany

    2006 - Saudade, Highbury Studios, London

    2006 - Transmission, Triangle Space, London

    2006 - Wildwuchs, Jahresausstellung, Leipzig/Germany (catalogue)

    2005 - Bilder Formen Bewußtsein, Symposium Kunstmuseum Bonn

    2005 - Kunst im Heuport, Regensburg/Germany

    2004 - Ein Stueck Schnee verteidigen, Kunsthaus, Nuremberg/Germany

    2004 - Ich moechte jetzt schliessen, UT Connewitz, Leipzig

    2003 - RAUS, Nuerbanum, Nuremberg

    2002 - Anlagenstillstand, Museumswinkel, Erlangen/Germany

    2002 - Bilder aus dem Koerperhaus, AdBK, Nuremberg

    2002 - Erlangen-Parcours, city-lab, Erlangen/Germany

    2002 - Grosse Kunstausstellung Sachsen-Anhalt, Villa Kobe, Halle/Germany (catalogue)

    2001 - Blaue Nacht, Nuernberger Akademie, Nuremberg

    2001 - Hand und Fuss, Gallery Zumikon, Nuremberg

    2001 - Hand und Fuss, Grafschaftsmuseum, Wertheim/Germany

    2000 - bok o bok, Gallery Kohlenhof, Nuremberg

    2000 - Erlangen-Parcours - Art projects for Erlangen, Town Hall, Erlangen/Germany

     

    Competitions, prizes and awards

    2015 - Project scholarship of the Cultural Foundation of the Free state of Saxony/Germany

    2008 - Video-Art-Award (Sonderpreis), Skulpturenmuseum, Marl/Germany

    2006 - Scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service

    2003 - Bavarian State Award for young artists, Ministery of Science, Research and Art, Munich

    2003 - Catalogue, Vice-Versa-Verlag, Berlin

    2003 - Scholarship of the Bavarian Ministry of Science, Resarch and Art

    2003 - Selection of the project 'cherry orchard' for execution, art competition 'Pfeiferplatz', Nuremberg

    2002 - Selection of the project 'growth zone' for execution, art competition 'Infrastruk-Tour', Roth

    2000 - 1. Prize, Competition of the new Exhibition Hall, AdBK, Nuremberg

    2000 - Award of the art class, Academy of Fine Arts, Nuremberg

    2000 - Award of the IHK, Kulturstiftung, Nuremberg

    2000 - Scholarship, Heinrich-Boell-Stiftung, Berlin

    1999 - 1. Prize, art competition for the 'Orthopaedie- und Rehazentrum', Cottbus/Germany

    1999 - Award of the art class, Academy of Fine Arts , Nuremberg

    1999 - Lausanne Jardins 2000, invitation and participation in the competition, Lausanne/Switzerland