Bethan Huws

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Bethan Huws (* 1961 in Bangor , Wales ) is a Welsh object artist . Her work consists of what she calls “word showcases”, organic objects and films .

Life and Artistic Themes

Bethan Huws grew up in North Wales speaking Welsh and English, and later French. Huws studied at the Royal College of Art in London in the 1980s . She lived in Paris until she moved to Berlin in 2009. The study of language as a means of communication and art are at the center of Bethan Huws' work. The artist pursues this theme in various media, spatial interventions, objects and text works. The points of contact are always the beginnings of modern art, especially Marcel Duchamp , to whose work some of Bethan Huw's works refer. Her text works, which she presented for the first time in 1991 in London with the presentation of “Lake Piece”, address language as a means of communication. Another topic that the artist initiates with her text works is the problematic relationship between artist and curator.

To the work

In the earliest exhibitions, closely written sheets of paper were attached to various walls, later text works were printed on metal panels and set up in an open landscape or the artist wrote in pencil directly on the wall of the gallery room.

"Word showcases"

Since 1998 Huws has been working with “Wort-Vitrinen”, commercially available metal boxes with a glass front and black back wall, which are used to convey information of all kinds with flexibly pluggable, white plastic letters and can be found, for example, in offices or in restaurants to display prices to display. Huws fills these boxes with its own content. The texts of the “word showcases”, which sometimes make you laugh, sometimes cut yourself or think, refer to the incongruities in the meaning of a word or the problematic position of an artist. So comment two of their "Word showcases" THAT ARTISTS DO NOT HAVE MUCH TO SAY: PROVES THAT THEY ARE SPEAKING and AS SELFISH AS A PAINTER ( not that artists have much to say, proves that they raise their voice and: Painters are characterized by their egoism ), the position of the artist in the present. In another “word showcase” with the letters “LLWYNCELYN” , the meaning of this word is not accessible to the viewer. The English translation "HOLLYWOOD" of this Welsh word, however, works like a logo worldwide and triggers associations.

Two more showcases evoke memories of two icons of modern art: “THIS IS NOT A PIPE: IS CORRECT. IT'S A PAINTING ” is written in one, and at the bottom“ René Magritte. 1928 "; the other reads “PISS OFF, I'M A FOUNTAIN” . René Magritte and Marcel Duchamp, whose works are cited here, questioned the relationship between objects and their representation in art in different ways in the works mentioned. When the artist was invited to exhibit in the same room with the Japanese old master On Kawara in the St. Gallen Art Museum , she dedicated a word showcase to him, “ON / ON KAWARA / 03/31/2006” , with a short text: “Fully aware of all that / passes in the world around him, On Kawara chooses to sit / stand / quietly painting his painting. ”With reference to the artist colleague, Huws again reveals her own sources, as she has repeatedly done with René Magritte or Marcel Duchamp .

Objects

With her object works, Huws also refers to Marcel Duchamp. She reconstructed one of Duchamp's first readymades , the “bottle dryer” from 1914, with the help of fluorescent tubes. In contrast to Marcel Duchamp, who worked with industrially manufactured objects, the artist chooses objects for her artistic work that nature has made, but for which she also uses the term “ready-made”. For example, the pen to which she dedicates herself in her more recent work is a natural “ready-made” for her.

Movies

In addition to the text works and the objects, Huws also devoted her work to the medium of film . The Chocolate Bar , the artist's fourth film, combines different aspects of her work. The four and a half minute film shows an absurd conversation in which misunderstandings arise due to different terminologies and levels of meaning. The subtle shifts in meaning and the inability to translate one language into another are also discussed here. Between the protagonists of the film past each other to talk, is constructed from a neon readymade reminiscent of Duchamp. The Chocolate Bar was shown in 2006 at Galerie Friedrich in Basel.

Training and scholarships

Exhibitions

literature

  • Ineke Kleijn (Ed.): Bethan Huws , in conjunction with the Exhibition Bethan Huws on the occasion of the BACA 2006 Europe Award, Bonnefantenmuseum September 24, 2006 to January 24, 2007; Kunstmuseum St. Gallen February 24 to May 13, 2007, König, Cologne 2006. ISBN 978-3-86560-115-5
  • Penelope Curtis et al. (Ed.): Bethan Huws, selected textual works 1991-2003 ; on the occasion of the exhibition Bethan Huws - Foyer , Kunsthalle Düsseldorf August 10 to September 28, 2003, König, Cologne 2003; ISBN 3-88375-740-3
  • Marion Ackermann: Bethan Huws , Federn, Munich 2000; ISBN 3-88645-147-X
  • Julian Heynen: Bethan Huws, watercolors , Krefelder Kunstmuseum, Krefeld 1998; ISBN 3-926530-83-9

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Homepage House of World Cultures Berlin , accessed on October 7, 2012
  2. ^ Ackermann, Marion, Bethan Huws: Federn München, 2000

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Huws, Bethan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Welsh contract artist
DATE OF BIRTH 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH Bangor (Wales)