ARCOmadrid: Alexander Gutke

Belenius/Nordenhake will present for the 2015 edition of ARCOmadrid three recent videos by Alexander Gutke from a series of five; Draw (2014), zoom in on some minimal theatrical spectacles of spontaneously combusting vintage matchbooks. Unfolding through changing image formats, Gutke`s seductive sequences, similarly to previous film-based works, reveal a studious process and dramaturgy. Held against a monochrome dark background, the torch-like fires appear like calibrated hourglasses measuring “their own time”, each burning, then fading away at a slightly different pace leaving only a smoke trail before the picture turns black again and the looped performance restarts.

The work Loud, loud (2014) was made specifically for Belenius/Nordenhake’s first exhibition with Alexander Gutke; it is a 137,5% enlarged brass replica of a Marshall Amp volume knob displayed centrally on a large wall of its own, attuned to the scale and proportions of its immediate surroundings. Inspired by his subjective experience of similairities between intense noise and total silence, referencing the sounds in space of 2001: A Space Odyssey, the piece continues in a line of replica works with their considerable set of references to the heydays of analogue technology and music history.