Lori
Hersberger: FLASHBACK The neon outlines of Ghost Rider (2008) glow brightly red
in the darkness of the room, a blurry reflection in the broken black glass on
the floor thus opening a space for imagination: the world as a representation,
something eluding us and never to be fully grasped. The dream is that we let
this visible world become an appearance to us. For Lori Hersberger, the
reference to a given room is essential also with his earlier installations. His
works reflect the room, absorb it and disintegrate its architecture into
immateriality. At the same time, they increase the presence of the room by
becoming an image and reflecting in mirrors. Decomposition and accentuation of
this spatial shell exist together and thus create a syntax of confrontation of
positions which mutually interfere and seem incompatible to a basic structure,
an instance characteristic for the artist’s entire oeuvre. Abstraction, though,
is not understood as a hermetic entity. On the contrary, the works suggest an
openness guiding the gaze into a dramaturgy of emptiness and signs, ambiance
and fissures. For the exhibition, the artist arranges the darkened gallery
space with neon outlines producing an intense light which through ephemeral
contours stages optional images – ghost images. Hence emblematic fields of
meaning are juxtaposed and in the resulting dynamic illusion and disillusion,
reverence and gaucherie, flirtation and animosity relentlessly clash. If
certain art of the past decades took effect as an art of mock-ups, it is
appropriate to speak of phantoms in Hersberger’s works. Other than a mock-up,
which only depicts an image, the phantom actually lingers between life and
death. This not-anymore or not-yet being Jacques Derrida characterizes with the
term Hantology. Modernism is history, but Hersberger makes it return. Modernism
reappears as a corpse in the scenery of art. All of modernism is contained in
postmodernism, but now speaks from the afterlife. A particular type of irony
against post-modern cynisism is inherent in Hersberger’s work. Because it not
only expresses freedom and triumph, but also despair and melancholy, it
curiously obtains a broader critical reach than a strictly cynical attitude
towards traditional values. We are pleased to present the first solo show of
Lori Hersberger at Galerie Nicola von Senger, an impressive insight into his
current work. With his work, the Zurich based artist is part of an
internationally acknowledged generation of Swiss artists. Furthermore, we would
like to announce the publication of Lori Hersberger – Phantom Studies, Musée
d’Art Contemporain Lyon at publisher JRP|Ringier this autumn.
