Karin Sander Grapes / Trauben, 2012
Grapes, stainless steel nail
Dimensions variable
Nail: ø 0,4 x 5 cm
Nail: ø 0,4 x 5 cm
The work consists of green grapes fixed to the wall with a nail according to the artist's instructions. The sculpture is a temporary piece that can be repeated as wished. The artist issues a certificate according to which the particular kind of vegetable or fruit can be displayed in the future.
Kitchen Pieces bear clear references both to the genre of still life and to the ready-made tradition of 20th century avant-garde art. The body of work is a tongue-in-cheek nod to the realistic yet often quite theatrical representations of fruits and vegetables in Dutch still-life painting of the 17th century. While Dutch masters often depicted fruits, mollusks and/or game on dark backgrounds, creating intricate depictions that addressed the transience of existence, the Kitchen Piece creates a bright spot on the white surface of the wall and carries its perishable nature lightly. Sander uses the actual fruit or vegetable, preempting the realist impulse of traditional painting practice to create a tromp l'oeil-like effect. Classic Conceptual Art works, such as Joseph Kosuth's One and Three Chairs (1965), juxtaposed objects with their depiction, but with her choice of fruits and vegetables Sander appears to poke fun at the seriousness of much of those works from the 1960s and 1970s. The straightforward aesthetics of Kitchen Pieces is reminiscent of the language of Minimalism and Conceptual Art but has its own laconic and playful wit.