Ulrich Strothjohann

About

Hidden in the sprawling mass of seating arrangements that make up the monumental installation, THE HAPPY END OF FRANZ KAFKA'S AMERIKA by Martin Kippenberger, is a makeshift wardrobe or cabinet containing a single chair with what looks to be a map cube. This strange piece is in fact a work by the Artist Ulrich Strothjohann that Kippenberger purchased for his own collection. That it ended up being used by Kippenberger within his own installation might be incredibly problematic for many artists, but for Strothjohann it was the perfect place for the object to find itself. For something to be lost gives it the ability to transform into something else and it is this philosophy of negation, or what appears to be missing that is important in understanding Stothjohann's work. He revels in the contradictions that such dilemmas produce and nowhere more has this been played out than in the blurring between his role as an artist and his role within the Atelier Kippenberger that has led him to be known as the 'least well known artist.' Looking at Kippenberger I found Strothjohann.