Hinrich Weidemann explores the concept of the interior through his collectively installed drawings, rendered in fragile pencil strokes and with brush traces in india ink. One could almost call these works withdrawn and modest if they didn’t insist with all their might that the issue of a picture’s autonomy has not been resolved, that it must be reintroduced in a new way—in the face of the possibly endless repetition of the artwork. Weidemann plays the part of the European, whose efforts at cracking the dead system he assumes without provocation. Yet, amazingly, he offers convincing forms, which take their place in space without hinting at the morbidity of the undertaking.

The artist’s exhibition here is, like all his other projects, a work-in-progress. Weidemann has recombined pieces from his total output, including some, omitting others. His installation, called Randgänge (Around the edge), consists of various parts. On the inner walls are 104 lead drawings and 16 watercolors with the collective title D.E.W., 1985–87. The works are inwardly disheveled, partly organic, threadlike, utterly pale and transparent. When viewing them from a distance, one sees only their standardized frames and mounts. It is only upon approaching and taking a close look at the individual drawings that they become distinguishable, but then the pieces attract attention quietly, their frail draftsmanship delicately registering history. The artist achieves the highest degree of understatement as he strives for the absolutely nonspectacular. Thus, the germinating form, which can be read as the chronicle of a hypersensitive artist, is restricted, dried out, reduced to a mere draft. This contraction, which creates a calm, white tension, is extended one step further by the 11 paintings on the outer walls, called OTON (I-XI), 1987. These are large-format works rendered in india ink on paper set onto stretchers. They are installed on the walls in such a way that they completely enclose the block of drawings on all sides. OTON (Greek for “hearing”) eavesdrops, imbeds the interior. It is a continuous, endless noise, within which the artist seems to be saying, “I exist because I have applied brush strokes on these surfaces; they show my handwriting.” The actual exploration of the line takes place not in the two crafts, drawing and brushwork, but in the intricacy of the relationships that are possible between the elements of each craft.

—Jutta Koether

Translated from the German by Joachim Neugroschel.