Peter Knoch
Africa, 2011
Artist
Peter Knoch
Title
Africa
Year of creation
2011
Technology and dimensions
Ceramic glazed and unglazed, water, foil, wire rope, dimensions and shape variable
Year of acquisition
2017
Acquisition of the foundation
Monkeys, hyenas and puppets populate Peter Knoch's scenic installations. In the sculptural work of the Berlin-based artist, monkeys in particular have developed over time into an imaginary fund and vocabulary that is constantly available for new image inventions. Like elements of a vocabulary, they appear in different ways on large reliefs, as ceramic sculptures, portraits or even in large-scale arrangements such as Africa , in order to then lead the viewer on further trails. The ongoing preoccupation with the creatures that are known to be closest to humans of all animals is due to a trip during which the monkeys literally ran into the artist's path. This encounter entailed a longer commitment in the sense that something concerns us and demands our reaction. In Peter Knoch's attractive and unsettling settings, personal encounters and events are always at play, which are condensed, formally organized, interwoven with mythological scenarios in a variety of ways and placed at a distance.
The new acquisition Africa forms its own atmospheric cosmos and plays with the fascination of the world on a small scale: tree-like black structures are grouped in a circle around a boat with rowing monkeys, which seems to glide through these dead, bulging branches. The monochrome, matt ceramic surfaces of the black monkeys and trees absorb every reflection of their surroundings and reinforce the expansive visual and at the same time dream-like presence of this no-escape world. The floating, shiny ball with resting hyenas highlights the apocalyptic and unreal-looking scenery.
What is here, in terms of craftsmanship and artistic precision and skill, the achievement of the art genre of ceramic sculpture, which has only recently been respected in the canon of conventional appreciation, emerges from the balancing act between the unfathomable and the beautiful appearance. The work with the quite provocative title Africa, ping-ponging between attractive elegance and crude discomfort, opens up a trading point where the unknown, uncanny becomes familiar and at home.
Birgit Effinger
