Patrick Heide Contemporary Art is pleased to present Point of View, Hans Kotter’s fourth solo exhibition at the gallery, which brings together a selection of large-scale sculptures and smaller objects that employ light and colour in varying manners and methods.
In continuation of earlier installations and series, always in debt to the pioneers of light art and the ZERO movement, for Point of View Kotter combines his idiosyncratic wall or floor based light objects with features of design and minimalism while entering into dialogue with the surrounding space. Toying with the viewer’s perception and investigating spatial illusion, Kotter’s light objects expand into depth or burst into the three-dimensional space pointing into infinity. Just as in a composed piece of music or film, Kotter guides the spectator through the space by building up moments of tension, changing narratives and by tying us up with colour-changing lights and familiar forms such as circles, spirals or more complex formal structures.
Kotter’s objects and installations are not sculptures in the classical sense but technically challenging animated designs captured in metal, mirrors or Perspex. The title giving work Point of View, one of the central pieces of the exhibition and probably the most complex ever executed by the artist, pulls the viewer into its depths in which he/she can lose and find himself. The sculpture is based on the geometrical shape of the Cuboctahedron, which is formed by six squares and eight equilateral triangles. In Point of View these three-dimensional forms are continuously mirrored. Presented on a plinth or freely hung from the ceiling, the object can be examined from all sides and different perspectives while creating a moment of introspection.
Beyond Light (Diptych) bears moving light bands on several levels that reminds us of a mesmerising show stage and transforms the gallery space into a vastly deep light space cabaret. An advancement from his Tunnel works, where a tubular shape is endlessly reflected within a confined space, Beyond Light disperses and spreads out in many layers while running through a synchronised and choreographed colour scheme.
Two other series on display, Light Codes (white) and (black) and Twins, also play with the border between design object and minimal sculpture. In Light Codes an interior light again moves on different levels, yet is only visible from a mirrored opening on one side that slightly curves away from the wall. Twins combines laterally illuminated colour changing slides, sourced from Kotter’s photographs, with a chrome front panel, whose mirroring reflection enhances the spatial illusion while the viewer becomes part of the art work and is thrown back into space. The piece will be separated with one part of the sculpture on display in the exhibition, whilst the other one will be simultaneously presented at PULSE art fair in Miami to underline global connectivity.
Hans Kotter’s work has been exhibited widely throughout Europe and the United States with a solo presentation at Museum Ritter, Germany in early 2017. He is included in important international private and public collections such as the Deutsche Bundestag (German Parliament), the Borusan Collection in Istanbul; Kinetica Museum in London; Targetti Light Art Collection in Florence and MAKK Museum für Angewandte Kunst Cologne among others.