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The point of departure for Jenni Tischer’s latest exhibition “Fortune” at the Krobath Gallery was two different kinds of found
objects: on the one hand, there are numerous vintage knitting needles, which the artist purchased at a warehouse sale and
then turned each one of them into artfully knitted sculptures and wall objects. On the other hand, there are various wheel
and rose church windows from across the world, including Basel, Rome, and New York, which served as models for a series of
abstract ink drawings and glass objects. The latter is the continuation of the series Makings and Making – Code, which Tischer
started to develop in 2012. Those works were abstract formations that she created by using odd ends of her other works’ production
processes, arranging them on circular glass panes, and fixing them with yarn. In the works titled Decision Making presented
in this exhibition, Tischer combines black looms of various sizes to form multiple “fabrics,” reminiscent of the church window
patterns. The yarn holds together the looms that, in turn, are “framed” by the glass pane. The result is a convolution of
“image” and “frame,” of display and work of art, made with a technique similar to the knitting needle objects. So it’s not
only the process of “making,” as the title suggests, and the decisions involved, literally, “on display” here. The technique
of hanging the art pieces is also visible: there is a small hole at the center of the glass panel for the nail it is hanging
on. Simultaneously, the abstraction of the objects presented in this exhibition allows for a broad spectrum of interpretation.
Some of the knitting needle objects are reminiscent of a cross or a nest as the combination of different circular structures
in the glass objects evoke associations with Marcel Duchamp’s rotating Rotoreliefs (1935) or Mandalas and wheels of fortune.
Some of the wheel windows are direct references to the wheel of Fortuna or wheel of fate. While in the Middle Ages, goddesses
were in charge of bestowing good luck, in the digital age, decisions can be left to an algorithm like the so-called “Decision
Making Wheel.” Therefore, Tischer doesn’t display the found objects just as “readymades” by turning mundane items into aesthetic
objects. By “interweaving” the individual elements, she introduces a spiritual dimension that has often been repressed in
Western cultures, thus extending the range of interpretation beyond the usual circulation of goods as well as beyond the status
of each object.
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