Georg Herold

One needed imagination and humor in order to enjoy this exhibition of Georg Herold’s work. For if one approached the work with tried and true ideas about art—questions about its sublimity, pedagogic intentions, or social relevance—one would simply laugh or nod in disbelief looking at his pot holders on wooden constructions. But this laughter, coupled with a joke or even cynicism, was generally stifled by Herold’s emphasis on the triviality of our daily life.

In these pieces, Herold worked playfully with pot holders. They are quite simply the materialization of a function, free of esthetic considerations, trivial. But in Herold’s hands they were transformed into a metaphor, into a fetish. The viewer was forced to think on parallel tracks. To see objects doubly—from both sides—is Herold’s goal. The patterns, techniques, and geometries of pot holders are visualizations of

— Norbert Messler