Alex Jasch’s fourth show to date was spare, sober, raw, and unyielding—yet it was not without charm and, odd as this might sound, a distinct erotic charge. Consider Kopfstudie, der Urknubbel (Head Study, the Primal Knob), 2005, in which a small white lump of plaster lies atop a tall, white quadrangular pedestal. The lump is actually the cast of a full garbage bag, whose bulging form and tapered folds recall the curves (with their subtle indications of nipples) in medieval images of the Madonna. Leftover scraps of jute fabric clinging to the edges vaguely suggest pubic hair. It is an all but surreal object, vulnerable, fragile, and abandoned to its own fragmentation.

Similarly fragmentary is Regal mit 2 blinden Glasscheiben aus dem Harz (Rack with 2 Blind Glass Panels from the Harz), 2009, three amorphous shapes made of plaster, wire, and newspaper hanging on the wall like wet rags. Bits of fallen plaster cling to the wall. These form strange shelves for small found panes of glass that have been spray painted white. Brittle, vulnerable, unstable, and now left to decay—what will they look like in ten years, when bits of the plaster have crumbled and dust has settled in multiple layers on their raw surfaces?

On the wall across from these fragile forms are three wooden panels painted with cheap red and blue hardware store paint: Über die Verrichtung verstrichener Farbe, rot, gelb, blau, hier zuviel blau (About the Performance of Coating Color, Red, Yellow, Blue, Here Too Much Blue), 2009; Über die Verrichtung verstrichener Farbe, rot, gelb, blau, hier zuviel gelb (About the Performance of Coating Color, Red, Yellow, Blue, Here Too Much Yellow), 2009; Über die Verrichtung verstrichener Farbe, rot, gelb, blau, hier zuviel rot (About the Performance of Coating Color, Red, Yellow, Blue, Here Too Much Red), 2009. These paints have been distributed over the entire surface of the picture via many, many vertical brushstrokes until . . . until what? Until, Jasch says, he has the impression that the picture is perfect, finished, and beautiful. But how does Jasch recognize this moment? This question ties together Jasch’s otherwise formally different objects, pictures, and sculptures. The largest piece on display, nearly filling an entire room, had less to do with the painterly brushstroke or the sculptor’s will to form than with the mischievous gestures of a Duchamp: Tischinstallation (Table Installation), 2009, a square tabletop propped up by a pedestal consisting of the massive white plaster cast of a full garbage bag. On top of the table were an actual open, grubby plastic bag containing shards of glass; a black designer lamp belonging to the gallery, illuminating the glass shards; and the black outline of the artist’s hand and forearm. Beside this stood a lightweight plastic chair covered with bitumen.

The search for perfect form is a classical one, but only in our time has it been conceivable to seek a perfect form even for the imperfect. his conundrum of aesthetic perfection and material imperfection is the subject matter of Jasch’s pictures, sculptures, and objects, and which in his hands touches on longing, desire, and the erotic.

—Noemi Smolik

Translated from German by Oliver E. Dryfuss.