Alice
Könitz Beautiful Ornaments as Shadows, Crashed Down and
a Video of Flickering Light in a 70’s Office Tower
LOS ANGELES, October
2002 – Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions presented a solo
exhibition by Alice Könitz that ran 16 November, 2002 through
18 January, 2003. An opening reception took place on Saturday 16
November 2002 from 6 - 8 pm. The artist spoke about her work during
a joint artists’ presentation with Ruby Neri on 17 January,
2003 at 7 pm. This exhibition was organized by Irene Tsatsos.
Alice Könitz’s
exhibition, entitled "Beautiful Ornaments as Shadows, Crashed
Down and a Video of Flickering Light in a 70’s Office Tower,"
could be seen even before entering the building. On the windows
of the building’s front façade, Könitz installed
a vinyl pattern across the viewable area of the glass, which provided
privacy and protection from the general street traffic, and enticed
and permitted curious passers-by to peek through the slivers of
space between pattern elements.
The window installation
provided a foreground for the rest of Könitz’s work in
the exhibition, which consisted of a series of maquettes and a new
sculpture. The sculpture was an amalgamation of her distinct memory
of a wooden structure that she visited as a child in Germany, and
a set of contemporary corporate office towers located in downtown
Los Angeles. This show will also include a series of maquettes -
small cardboard and mixed media models - which served as proposals
for structures that could function as sculpture, as architecture,
or both.
Könitz’s constructions
suggested an opening of the modernist aesthetic. Rather than tight,
impenetrable forms, there were gaps that revealed sites of potential.
There was a purposeful absence in Könitz’s forms that
alluded to material breakdown. However, breakdown does not equal
disintegration. The spaces were slippages, sites for reconstructing
alternate realities and structures. Könitz imagined the viewer
relating to her sculptures as pseudo-functional objects, alluding
to possibilities in the everyday. Stoking the tension between title,
material, structure, and imagined functionality, Könitz played
with the viewer’s sense of hope and expectation.
Admission to Los Angeles
Contemporary Exhibitions is free with a recommended donation of
$3.00 ($2.00 students, members free). Gallery hours are Wednesday
- Sunday12 - 6 pm, Friday 12 – 9 pm*. Call 323.957.1777 for
parking information, directions, and additional information.