Order of Matter

JULIA SCHEWALIE

Exhibition duration
25. March – 5. May 2023

In the solo exhibition Order of Matter, Julia Schewalie shows her latest works as well as works from older periods, which reveal her complete spectrum of unusual materialities.

Our reality, like our personality, is not static, but in constant motion and change. Nothing is as it seems. If the perspective changes, sometimes everything changes. Julia Schewalie's works are enchanting because of their inherent ephemeral fleetingness, which is irritatingly contrasted by an often unusual materiality. The monochrome, perfect at first glance, is quickly broken up on closer inspection. All works always involve their surroundings, are dependent on light, shadow, movement. This is precisely what makes them so appealing, since their appearance changes continuously. The surfaces that change in the light imply a moment of dynamism - triggered by the viewers and their changing viewpoints or by changing light conditions in the room.

At the beginning there is always the open gaze of the artist in search of an unusual reflection. It is a wide variety of materials that arouse her interest. She then sensitively combines them into a large whole in an elaborate handcrafted production process. Following a minimalist-conceptual approach, Julia Schewalie controls material and form, but steps back behind the finished work as a person to allow viewers to engage completely in a dialogue with it. Despite all the reduction, her individual signature runs through the works: She carefully arranges vinyl records sawed and polished into fine slices, stretched nylon threads, cut glass or flamed wooden rods in many rows or squares. Minimally, she changes the angles of the individual parts piece by piece, as in an orchestrated domino game, lined up and yet not static. The incident light refracts differently and creates a lively, ever-changing surface. Iridescent structures made of PVC, asphalt and car foils - Julia Schewalie explores the most unusual materials that do not reveal their nature at first glance. Combining a sculptural process with a painterly character, the aggregate states of the surfaces often remain uncertain.

Anna Wondrak