Ceal Floyer

The Pakistani-born artist Ceal Floyer focuses on the true, radical implementation of her motifs into the media form she uses. She reduces the amount of material to the bare minimum and deals with simple everyday objects and situations. In her projections and her installations and performances, which rely on objects and sound, the concept artist constantly questions the reality intrinsic to the work by juxtaposing designation and meaning, emptiness and silence, the visible and the invisible. At the heart of her oeuvre is the illustration of an idea in its radical and rational implementation, the result of which plays with ambiguity and bewildermentperplexity.

The projection Peel creates the impression that the back wall of the projection room is being removed layer by layer, sheet by sheet as if it were a stack of paper. The artist employs the computer software Adobe Premiere to simulate this process of peeling or stripping. Peel refers to a common video processing effect that can be used to convert one projected image into another. In Floyer’s installation, a projector and its projection field create a space that generates a visual experience. The emphasis here is not on illusionism or optical illusion. Instead, Peel describes a process that is more familiar from the medical or cosmetic field and is closely related to the stripping and regeneration of skin. Here, the image-processing technique is applied to the architecture of the exhibition space itself. No images are used. The installation explores the possibilities of experiencing cause and effect, of representation and presentation.

Monochrome Till Receipt (White) is a purchase receipt with a list of white items that Floyer bought from a supermarket chain. The list consists of everyday items that are white or contain the word “white” in their names, including flour, hand cream, mozzarella, toothpaste, tissues, white chocolate, milk, salt, sugar, cotton pads, etc. The receipt is simply attached to the exhibition wall. The concept behind the receipts series (an ongoing work that has appeared in various versions since 1999) stipulates that the artist and/or the curators do their shopping locally. The work suggests a still life consisting of white goods that only exists in our imagination.

 

Anke Hervol

 

In the exhibition:

Ceal Floyer
Peel, 2003
DVD, DVD-Player, Projector Loop, 0:50 min, silent
Courtesy the artist + Esther Shipper, Berlin

Ceal Floyer
Monochrome Till Receipt (White), German version, 1999–2008, 2021
Ink on paper, spraymounted to wall (Copy)
Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau München, Permanent loan collection KiCo

 

Additional information about the artist