Judith Hopf
Stepping Stairs
10 February – 15 April 18

 
<p>Judith Hopf, <em>Stepping Stairs</em>, 2018, Courtesy Judith Hopf</p>

Judith Hopf, Stepping Stairs, 2018, Courtesy Judith Hopf

 

Opening: 9 February 18, 7 pm 

 

Since the 1990s, Judith Hopf (born 1969 in Karlsruhe, DE) has been developing an independent artistic language that has consistently managed to stake out new ground over the years, be it in the form of sculpture, film, drawing, performance or even stage design. Her works are deeply rooted in the use of everyday materials, like brick, concrete, glass, packaging, and plausible manufacturing processes. They speak of the things, which form and influence us in our everyday lives, while also reacting to what could be described as a contemporary condition. Her works draws references to the effects that developments in economics and technology have had on our bodily and mental composition. For her exhibition at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Hopf will continue her engagement with the materiality of bricks. The masoned brick works succinctly occupy an intermediary position that fluctuates between sculpture and (exhibition) architecture, both dividing and augmenting the exhibition space. These pieces will be contrasted with older bodies of work in KW, including a reworked version of Hopf’s laptop sculptures. Here, the artist makes a humorous reference to the way we interact with computers and the growing tendency to perceive them as part of our bodies. Whereas at the same time we as a species rely on implants and prostheses more than ever before.

 

Alongside these sculptural works, the exhibition at KW will include a new film as well as an ambitious commission for the facade in KW’s courtyard. In these works, two historic artists have served as immediate sources of inspiration: on one hand the American architect and architectural theorist John Hejduk (1929–2000), on the other the German artist Annette Wehrmann (1961–2010).

 

An installation of the Serpentine Streamer Texts by Annette Wehrmann alongside an audio recording of her reading of the texts will be presented on the 3rd floor at KW from February 10th until March 11th, 2018.

 

A comprehensive publication will be produced parallel to the exhibition, which compiles new and already existing texts by Hopf as well as by the central companions of her work.

 

The exhibition by Judith Hopf at KW is coproduced with SMK (National Gallery of Denmark).

 

Curator: Anna Gritz

Assistant Curator: Maurin Dietrich

 

<p>The exhibition is kindly supported by the Capital Cultural Fund and Stiftung Kunstfonds. The commission is supported and donated by OUTSET Germany_Switzerland.</p>

 

The exhibition is kindly supported by the Capital Cultural Fund and Stiftung Kunstfonds. The commission is supported and donated by OUTSET Germany_Switzerland.

 

 

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Judith Hopf, <i>Hand 4</i>, 2017, courtesy the artist and Deborah Schamoni, Munich, installation view KW Institute for Contemporary Art, photo: Frank Sperling
Judith Hopf, Hand 4, 2017, courtesy the artist and Deborah Schamoni, Munich, installation view KW Institute for Contemporary Art, photo: Frank Sperling
Judith Hopf, <i>Birne</i>, 2018, brick, cement, Courtesy the artist and kaufmann repetto, Milan, New York, Deborah Schamoni, Munich, and Metro Pictures, New York; installation view KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Photo: Frank Sperling
Judith Hopf, Birne, 2018, brick, cement, Courtesy the artist and kaufmann repetto, Milan, New York, Deborah Schamoni, Munich, and Metro Pictures, New York; installation view KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Photo: Frank Sperling
Judith Hopf, installation view <i>Stepping Stairs</i> at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Photo: Frank Sperling
Judith Hopf, installation view Stepping Stairs at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Photo: Frank Sperling
Judith Hopf, <i>Hand 1</i>, 2016, brick, cement, Courtesy the artist and kaufmann repetto, Milan, New York, installation view KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Photo: Frank Sperling
Judith Hopf, Hand 1, 2016, brick, cement, Courtesy the artist and kaufmann repetto, Milan, New York, installation view KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Photo: Frank Sperling
Judith Hopf, installation view <i>Stepping Stairs</i> at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Photo: Frank Sperling
Judith Hopf, installation view Stepping Stairs at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Photo: Frank Sperling
Judith Hopf, installation view <i>Stepping Stairs</i> at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, photo: Frank Sperling
Judith Hopf, installation view Stepping Stairs at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, photo: Frank Sperling
Judith Hopf, <i>Untitled (Laptop Men)</i>, 2018, steel, polish, Courtesy the artist and kaufmann repetto, Milan, New York and Deborah Schamoni, Munich, installation view KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Photo: Frank Sperling
Judith Hopf, Untitled (Laptop Men), 2018, steel, polish, Courtesy the artist and kaufmann repetto, Milan, New York and Deborah Schamoni, Munich, installation view KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Photo: Frank Sperling
Annette Wehrmann, <i>Luftschlangen</i> (Serpentine Streamers); accompanying program of Judth Hopf: <i>Stepping Stairs</i>; Installation view KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Photo: Frank Sperling
Annette Wehrmann, Luftschlangen (Serpentine Streamers); accompanying program of Judth Hopf: Stepping Stairs; Installation view KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Photo: Frank Sperling