Arne Schreiber / Gleich

About

The visual impact of Arne Schreiber’s works stems from the painstakingly meticulous way – both on a mental and a physical level – in which they were created. Every line is fought for. Every trace on the canvas is indicative of a struggle, one that has the possibility of failing at any given moment.

Repetitions are common in all areas of life. They characterise many philosophical, religious, scientific, media and artistic practices. Schreiber explores individuality as a basic human trait, manifested in the fact that is it impossible to create absolute uniformity.

The formal reduction of his works allows subtle nuances of difference to come to the fore: concentration and exhaustion, euphoria and despair, precision and vagueness are at opposite emotional ends of a scale of infinite variation produced by repetition.

Schreiber began to retrace the lines of graph paper with ink in 2006. This was followed by an intense phase of drawing symmetrical lines on canvas. Then, during a scholarship at Brandenburg’s Schloss Wiepersdorf in 2013, the artist swapped the wooden battens that he had used as rulers up to now for the irregular shapes of some branches he found in the woods. The works on show here combine both methods for the first time, creating complex compositions in which the uniqueness of organic forms meets the interchangeability of industrially produced ones.

In addition to referencing the cyclical nature of human existence, as reflected in Schreiber’s artistic practice, the title of the exhibition Gleich(same) also formulates a promise: the firm belief in a future in which what seems impossible now might just come true.

Text by Diana Weis / 2017
 Translated by Katja Taylor