Tobias Kaspar

Jenny's is pleased to present a suite of new works by Tobias Kaspar, produced with a Swiss textile manufacturer known for supplying fabric to haute couture brands. The material’s surface has a melted glass coating, similar to the shimmering reflective surfaces of hi-tech athletic wear. Depending on the viewpoint of the visitor, the intensity of ambient light, as well as the use of a camera flash, these light-sensitive surfaces simultaneously conceal and reveal the presence of laser engraved patterns and text.

The abstract patterns are taken from an earlier series of Kaspar’s work, “The Gentlewoman/Stripped Bare,” first shown at Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis in 2013. Their geometric shapes reference the layout of the eponymous women-focused lifestyle magazine, The Gentlewoman. Emptied of their pictorial content, these forms become structures that serve to direct the reader's attention. Two of the larger works depict text which reads ‘Almond / Red’ and ‘Birch / Lights’ - words that could easily appear on the accompanying exhibition text card that describes a character struggling between different worlds. The seemingly random pairs function as connotations for lifestyle branding and products, i.e. Almond Milk, Red Pomegranate, Birch Water, Marlboro Lights. Kaspar's interest in the mechanisms of trendsetting lies not so much in the omnipresent 'image,' but rather in appropriating and questioning the underlying strategies of seduction.