On Ambivalence

[2022]

Sculpture, Drawing, Installation

Objects in the exhibition “Jenny Brockmann: On Ambivalence” at Dorothée Nilsson Gallery in Berlin were three Armillarspheres in copper which held a small sculpture of the organ of balance.

Invented in the 4th century BC for mapping star constellations the ptolemaic armillarsphere contained a smooth sphere depicting the earth. It was a cosmic machine which rings referred to the circles of the celestial bodies. Jenny Brockmann swaps the globe for the organ of equilibrium and in doing so she is able to start a discussion about the interrelatedness of the organ of balance and initiating an exchange of ideas on how the organ of balance relates to other living an non-living modes of existence. In the armillary sphere, the organ of equilibrium can be rotated 360 degrees in all directions and can therefore be positioned in different directions in relation to other reference points. The organ of imbalance is also referred to in a 100-fold enlarged organ of equilibrium in glass. The different surface compositions of the glass form make the sculpture either translucent and thus allow views through it or give it an opaque structure through which the forms behind the glass cannot be seen or can only be seen dimly. The sculpture absorbs the surroundings and reflects them. The surface plays a key role here, as the glass has the capacity to reduce, enlarge and distort the reflected environment depending on its shape.

This points to the circumstance that the sense of orientation is equally connected to our inner self. It reflects the environment within us, but the stimulus is perceived differently depending on our predisposition and the paths and inclinations appear short or long, strongly or slightly deviating. Sometimes, both the glass reflection and the perceived orientation in space give rise to illusions and appearances that point to something that belongs more to the realm of the imagination than to the real image, and it is precisely then that a poetic moment of the intermediate dimension opens up.