It’s not about what it is, but rather what it appears to be. The built installations feel real, and the emptiness between the broken lines almost tangible. Esther Stocker uses black electric tape, emulsion paint and form core to carefully demarcate space within empty rooms. Capitalizing on our tendency to look for recognizable shapes and patterns, she creates 3-D optical illusions which challenge conceptions of space.

What I don’t know about space, 2008,masking tape, foam core and emulsion paint on wall, 3,69 x 10 x 2,8 m, exhibition view MUSEUM 52, London, Photo: Andy Keate.

Gridded structures and a grayscale palettes; the materiality and forms are remarkably simple, but yield complex and thought provoking results.   The title of her solo exhibition at MUSEUM 52 in London, “What I Don’t Know About Space” underlines her preoccupation with spatial structures and spatial experience. In an interview with Don’t Panic magazine, she explains her notions. “It is really hard to describe, but I never really know where one thing is at… like myself for instance… Imagine I am on a chair. The chair is two metres from a wall. The wall is on the second floor of a house in Vienna and so on. But what relates to what? Even the solar system is dependent on being described by some unclear idea of a universe being described by a confused human observer.”

Abstract thought is a warm puppy, 2008, wood, emulsion paint, 10,75 x 12,10 x 3 m, exhibition view CCNOA – Center for Contemporary Non-Objective Art, Brussels, Photo: Sacha Georg.

geometrisch betrachtet, 2008, wood, emulsion paint, exhibition view Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Wien, Photo: Pez Hejduk.

The term “alike” may attract our attention, but in fact means nothing at all. (Frege), 2004, masking tape on wall, wood boxes, 13, 3 x 5, 6 x 3, 4 m, exhibition view AR/GE Kunst Galerie Museum, Bozen, Photo: Martin Pardatscher.

She has created installations throughout Europe: in Brussles, Wien, Vienna, and London, and despite their simplicity, minimalist construction and shared subject matter – they have yet to become redundant.  Each deals with illusion and human perception in an original way, based on grid structures and geometrically-driven means of defining space. Her installations create spatialized images into which viewers can physically enter.

At Mumok (factory) in Wein, her exhibition titled “geometrisch betrachtet”, which loosely translated to “geometrically observes”, consisted of white-painted wooden bars set at equal intervals on the black surfaces of the room (floor, walls and ceiling). The bars framef an empty space, perpetually transformed by the viewers movements and changing viewpoint.

via Wallpaper*