Parallel Line Up

Solo exhibition
16.08.-26.08.2015
@Breiðdalssetur, Iceland

Jenny Brockmann

In her current project Parallel Line Up Berlin-based artist Jenny Brockmann investigates the environment, its dynamics and how people interact with it. She researches volcanic and geological processes that contain either the creation of new landscapes or their destruction.

Central to the focus of her work is the examination of how data is collected and the impact its visualization has upon a viewer.

Her residency in Iceland brought the artist to Breiddalsvik, in the east of the country, where she was invited to research at the geological center Breiddalssetur. The center archives the inheritance of geologist and volcanologist George P. L. Walker, who made outstanding discoveries in the methodology of volcanological research. His reports, sketches, books and maps give a detailed insight into how he decoded the geology in the east of Iceland.

During her artist residency at Skaftfell Center for Visual Arts in Seydisfjrdur in August 2015, Brockmann evaluated and mapped the collected materials connected to the people in Iceland.

From August 16th to August 26th Brockmann will exhibit three data sculptures combined with drawings, photography, and text at the geological center Breidalssetur. The paper works, ink on transparent paper, are mostly copies of drawings, maps and texts from the archive of George Walker. On a map of Iceland the artist inscribed all the seismographic sensors that are installed throughout Iceland. Annotated photographs (ink on inkjet prints) show images of different sensors that the Meteorological Office set up in the Icelandic landscape to observe volcanological and meteorological activities.

The artist will be present for a discursive event on August 25th to discuss the collection of data and its local and global impact on the viewer.

In her sculptures Brockmann combines climatic and seismographic data with stones that originate from the test sites throughout Iceland. The resultant kinetic sculptures visualize information in real time. The sculpture M 00012-01-09 (H60cm x W40cm x D21cm, Lambporphyr (granite), rubber tube, pump, 2012-2014) is a model of the stone sculpture Stone (H0,6m x W3m x D3m, 2014) that the artist exhibited at the German Consulate General in New York in early 2014. The stones, sourced from a quarry close to Dresden, are lifted up and down through an air cushion according to the temperature in Berlin. The sculpture M 00012-02-05 (H60cm x W40cm x D25cm, Lambporphyr (granite), steel, motor, 2012-2014) moves according to mid-European time intervals and the sculpture M 00012-01-25 (H60cm x W40cm x D25cm, Lambporphyr (granite), pump, hydraulic cylinder, 2012-2014) opens up at dawn and closes at dusk.

“For many years the artist has been concentrating on the subject of nature and its inherent processes. Inspired by light, water, air, and kinetic energies she creates new forms, structures and workflows. There is a dainty ease and liveliness which is very unique to these newly formed entities, creating unexpected interactions with the observer, and widening pre-conceived ideas in a playful way.” (N. Haegeli)

Jenny Brockmann (*1976 in Berlin) holds an MFA from the University of Fine Arts Berlin (Meisterschülerin of Rebecca Horn) and an MA in Architecture from the Technical University of Berlin. Her sculptures and installation span from the organic to the philosophical and have been exhibited in a variety of international venues: Manege, St. Petersburg; Museo de Arte de El Salvador, San Salvador; Nordart, Rendsburg; Kasko, Basel; St. Pancras, London; Galerie Gerken, Berlin; Museo para la identidad Nacional, Tegucigalpa; Haus am Lützowplatz, Berlin; Deutsches Generalkonsulat, New York; The Genia Schreiber University Gallery, Tel Aviv; Hudson River Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, USA and Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan.
The project has been kindly supported by the Goethe Institute. Text by Lisa Paland,cultural mediator currently completing an internship at Skaftfell.