Frank Weidenbach’s drawings result from intersecting lines that fill the entire sheet format and form a close-meshed network of lines. These lines refer to nothing. They are – in orthogonal rigor – only what they are and form a structure, a surface, a textum.
These are lines that – close together – are either drawn with a ruler or created as freehand drawings.
Inevitably or – automatically – this contemplative manual process leads to density fluctuations and fluctuations in the line structure, which give the drawings a quiet, trembling intensity.
Ralf Werner’s works often refer to historical architectural photos or drawings. This also applies to the Oskolok group of works, which refers to Russian revolutionary architecture of the 1920s by Konstantin Melnikov. Werner refers to a window type from Melnikov’s Moscow residential and studio building.
On display were complex geometric sculptures made of wood and glass, which reflect the surrounding space in many broken ways and have condensed into an autonomous module system.
Like Frank Weidenbach, Ralf Werner focuses on a structure and entrusts everything to it. He used the window type he examined as the basis for an autonomous spatial-plastic system that is reminiscent of both architecture and drawing.
The fabric (i.e. textum), the inner and outer structure, the logic of the reduction of the works of Ralf Werner and Frank Weidenbach are related to each other in some respects.
Photos: Frank Weidenbach & Ralf Werner
Despite all the obvious differences, they are united by their rejection of ingenious invention, their preference for precise observation and the uncompromising nature of their methods.
