THE FINEST BUBBLE
Magdalena Los & Pablo Schlumberger

 

Mostly as a supplement to the main plot, in focks or as a duet, foating, sitting, lying, storing, the putto often adapts as an ornamental element to the subjects of its environment and is used for
pictorial and decorative purposes as well as to reinforce and underline the content. Putti are representing the feelings of the main adult actors, doubling or multiplying their movements and
facial expressions by imitating them, incorporating their moods and expressively discharging them. In their allegorical existence they appear not only as representative and supportive sentient beings, but also as placeholders for morally doubtful actions: they drink wine, they lounge, they sing, dance, make music, celebrate, adorn themselves with fowers and scarves and wallow in their nakedness. They can do everything, because they are children. The sins of adults are portrayed in the innocent form of naked, charming toddlers and therefor de-emphasised, hidden or diluted, despite often very explicit visualizations. They are subtle projections and scapegoats, as it were, but in contrast to the witches and heretics of the Christian Middle Ages, they are a scapegoat that is never brought before the tribunal. As catalysts of all vices, they stare, whisper, blaspheme at the edge of the action, nevertheless they are an important part of the harmonious centre, generating the splendid force of a baroque ceiling fresco through their physicality and arrangement. These peculiar inter-fgured and atmospheric conditions are fundamental for the work “The Finest Bubble”.

The Finest Bubble, installation view, Yellow. Photo by Natalia Trejbalova, Courtesy Yellow

 

The Hamburg based artists Magdalena Los and Pablo Schlumberger were producing the work “The Finest Bubble” for their exhibition at Yellow. A mural has been created, which includes drawings, paintings, sculptural elements and reliefs. “The Finest Bubble” is the result of an interplay of forms and images that are brought along and newly developed during the process at
Yellow.A new series of pictures was created in the projects space. Sceneries and forms framed in portholes consist of partially collaged, fragmentary plaster casts, drawings and paintings. A view that leads through the “bubbels”, through windows or eyes into or out of a setting. Even if the figurative representations of the putti seem to hide, they are present through isolated parts of their bodies and the embellishment of their detailed additions or accessory: beer mugs, barrels, curtains, ribbons, columns, plinths or even forms, patterns reminiscent of drunkenness and states of love. The cycle of pictures is framed by wall paintings that deal with pictures seen in Varese. The combination of the “framed series” and the wall paintings creates a further level of content and narrative: two hands playing with the objects, and an aesthetic fracture: the comic-like “splashes” in a strange, almost unpleasant mixture of colours between mustard yellow, mattegold, brown and green collide with the pastel, delicate tones of the reliefs. Nevertheless they are connected through funfair and pleasure garden associations from then and now. The title “The Finest Bubble” alludes both, on a content and a formal level to the confrontation with the theme of putti. On the one hand, the round, soft, perfect forms of the putto’s physicality are rufed up, at the same time it is about the sinful enjoyment of precious champagne or fowing chocolate. Magdalena Los and Pablo Schlumberger have already worked together on a wide variety of work cycles. Recently, they created a series of sculptures and drawings that dealt with the theme of the Putto. The observation and use of a traditional, art historical symbolism from a modern, scrutinizing and humorous perspective plays a primary role in the collaborative work of both artists.

 

The Finest Bubble, installation view, Yellow. Photo by Natalia Trejbalova, Courtesy Yellow

Amuse Gueules designed by the Berlin chef Paula Erstmann and based on the exhibition “The Finest Bubble” will be served at the vernissage. The exhibition is curated by Lisa Klosterkötter.
She has already realized several shows in Germany with Magdalena Los and Pablo Schlumberger and was inviting Yellow in 2018 to the project space Strizzi in Cologne. She is a freelance curator and co-director of Strizzi.

 

The Finest Bubble, detail, Yellow. Photo by Natalia Trejbalova, Courtesy Yellow

 

Magdalena Los (*1987, Jastrzębie -Zdrój, PL) is based in Hamburg. For the year 2019 she got the working scholarship from the ministry of culture, Hamburg. Magdalena Los is working with
multiple materials mainly in the disciplines painting, drawing, sculpture, installation. Her artistic work combines conceptional aspects with material related and handcrafted elements. She was showing her work in exhibitions like „Worlding it Otherwise or Else“ in Bärenzwinger in Berlin (2019), PMB-Art Prize, „Große Kunstschau“, Worpswede (2018), „Ghost-Driver in a Drive-Thru“, Schaltzentrale, Hamburg (2018) and „Déflé“, Kunstverein Hamburg (2017). Together with Pablo Schlumberger she was producing the drawing series „Virgin” for PFEIL-Magazin contribution, Mainstream-Issue (2018). 2018 she graduated with a Masters degree at Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Hamburg.

 

Pablo Schlumberger (*1990, Aachen, DE) was recently realizing a soloshow at Galerie Genscher in Hamburg. The Hamburg based artist is working with multi-media sculptures and paintings as well as drawings and installations, which often fnd form in cultural objects, combining traditions and modernity (f.e. fountains, coins, cofee). Pablo Schlumberger collaborated with Magdalena Los for several projects. He was part of the groupshow „Reality with Ribbon“ at Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof in Hamburg (2019), „get some headspace“ at Ralphs, Cologne (2019) and „Further thoughts on earthy materials”, Kunsthaus, Hamburg (2018). 2018 he was graduating with a Master of Fine Arts at Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Hamburg. For the year 2019 Pablo Schlumberger got the working scholarship from the ministry of culture, Hamburg.