“Stretching and
reaching from the corner of a room, a dizzying array of images, words and
objects grasp the eye and the mind …”[1]
From
a corner at the opposite end of the gallery the voice of the prematurely
deceased artist rhythmically fills the space and evokes the ‘painter’s diagonal
method’[2]
– this is the result of a curatorial composition that involves a video playing
of the artist, Anna Oppermann, telling us about her work. The documentary film
dates from 1977. In it, Oppermann says she started creating ensembles because
she was unable to paint a perfect painting that could be framed, shown in a
gallery and be widely admired. Because of this critical self-reflection and her
rich thought processes, she moved from painting to ensembles.
There
is a lot to look at in this ensemble, Cotoneaster
horizontalis, which is a recreation of the ensemble shown at the
Kunstverein Düsseldorf in 1984.
The
Cooper gallery offers the space and the time to look at it all – space and time
were integral to Oppermann’s practice.
“Even
if produced over a number of years, every ensemble does indeed have a
surprisingly simple beginning in time and space.” Oppermann’s ensembles were
all motivated by a specific ’starting object’ such as an everyday object, a
plant or a phrase. As an artist, Oppermann dedicated time and energy to
explaining herself; she made art from the depths of her thought processes, from
recordings and sometimes by multiplying and reworking every stage of that
process. As an academic, Oppermann struggled with the rigid system at Wuppertal
University where she taught for eight years. Perhaps the name and the
definition of the cotoneaster plant(see below) resemble the profile of a student
of that time and we could argue that it also describes contemporary students,
too.
“Cotoneasters come in all shapes and sizes,
raging from prostrate ground covers [German: bodembedecker] to 20 ft. trees.
All cotoneaster are hardy and tolerant of poor conditions – they will grow
almost anywhere and need no attention apart from cutting back if they start to
get out of hand.”[3]
This
exhibition at the Cooper gallery, which is just on the other side of the wall
from the general foundation year studios at Duncan of Jordanstone College of
Art & Design, is visually rich and sure to be a potent source of
inspiration for students who come to see it. Hopefully their future work will
echo Oppermann’s reflective play and they will be provoked to ask themselves
what it means to ‘be an artist’.
[1] From Against
the Finite by Sophia Yadong Hao, p.1 Anna Oppermann Cotoneaster horizontalis
publication, Cooper gallery, Dundee, 2014
[2] The Diagonal Method is a “method” of composition that was discovered accidentally
in May 2006 by the Dutch photographer and teacher of photography Edwin Westhoff
while doing research on a theory of composition called the “Rule of Thirds”, as
it is known in photography. The Diagonal Method is different from existing
theories of composition (e.g. the Rule of Thirds and the Golden Section) because
it is not concerned with making “good” compositions but with finding details
which are important to the artist in a psychological or emotional way. In this way
the Diagonal Method is completely subjective. It has nothing to do with positioning
lines or shapes in a certain location within a frame with the intention of
getting a “better” composition. Hence we can use the Diagonal Method to find
out what the artist’s interests were. The positioning of details is done in an
unconscious manner. That’s why the Diagonal Method is so exact. https://sites.google.com/site/diagonalmethod/home
[3] From Hessayon, D. G., The Tree & Shrub Expert, pbi Publications, Herts, 1983
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