Laura Flöter. The world as a chamber of curiosities.

Laura Flöter. Wasteland Villa

LauraFlöter-WastelandVilla

“Wasteland Villa” is Laura Flöter’s exhibition with us. A provocative title that evokes a whole series of associations. Barren wasteland, desert. Hardly any vegetation. A landscape that at first glance seems to have little vitality or usefulness. And somewhere an old villa. Who does live there? If anyone still lives there at all. Maybe one of these “lost places”. Abandoned properties whose original use and purpose has fallen into oblivion. Decayed places, which for exactly this reason invite you to go on a journey of discovery, to explore, to search for traces. To measure and map what was here at some point in time. But much more what is here today. Let’s take a closer look. In fact, Laura Flöter’s exuberant material collages are equipped with a highly idiosyncratic life of their own. And at the same time, they are extremely vivid. This already starts with Laura Flöter’s working material.

Lost and found

In fact, Laura Flöter consistently works with discarded materials. With used, often (re)found objects. In Laura Flöter’s studio there is a whole shelf with an abundance of such found objects. A conglomeration of more or less unsorted “stuff” of all kinds. In boxes with the most diverse things that at some point were of importance to someone. They have become “useless” over the years, landed in some kind of box. Things that nobody needs anymore and that Laura Flöter can use all the better. In the multifarious worlds that she creates on the surface of the canvas. Laura Flöter preserves all these elements, very carefully and in such a way that they remain recognizable, and thereby places them in a new context.

Laura Flöter is happy about all the bits and pieces that may have accumulated in your cellar, attic, garage or children’s room. Marbles, feathers, small plastic toy animals. Make-up mirrors, playing cards, wooden figurines. Puzzle pieces, shells and snail shells, even a bunch of keys to which there is no lock anymore. Or a little bell that hung in a parrot cage sometime, some little toy to pass the time.

“Zero Waste”. Yes, somehow that, too.

Laura Flöter herself says about her work: “Working with used objects follows the logic of a world in which resources are becoming increasingly scarce faster and faster. Where even the so-called First World will very soon feel the consequences of a wasteful use of the raw materials of our planet, it is necessary to pay tribute to what no longer seems useful at a second glance.

“Zero Waste”, indeed. In an admittedly somewhat unwieldy definition, it says: “Zero Waste is an ethical, economic, efficient and visionary goal that makes people change their lifestyles and practices to emulate sustainable natural goals in which all discarded materials serve to become resources for others”. (Zero Waste International Alliance, 2009). Well, Laura Flöter has also succeeded in that field: “reuse” and “recycle” are central principles in the design of her works. It doesn’t matter whether it’s her freestanding sculptures, her assemblages or her object collages. By the way, the transitions between the different categories are fluid. Laura Flöter appreciates things by staging them anew. Which, incidentally, may also astound one or the other “material donor” when he or she experiences one or the other discarded toy in a new context.

The context makes the difference

There’s this plane, for example. Is it still “only” a small toy or rather in its new context a “real airplane” flying over a mysterious wild landscape? A landscape populated by zebras and dinosaurs. Or even – in direct comparison – a giant reptile that seems to fall out of the frame. There are even a few scattered molars from an artificial set of teeth. Whom did they belong to. And then the toy warriors. Which battle do they fight and against whom? And where is the head of the headless Barbie? Ah, there it lies. Not far away at all. Maybe she can be rescued.

Laura Flöter places the supposedly familiar in new contexts and invites us all to think up our own stories.

Laura Flöter’s worlds offer much room for speculation. Especially since the human mind is indeed “afraid of emptiness”. The “Horror Vacui” we somehow can not endure. It is a human need to fill in empty spaces and to connect the unconnected. And then the plastic zebra is no longer “just like that” in wire or nails, but probably in some steppe.

Assemblage. Collage. Which glue keeps the world together?

Laura Flöter’s world is indeed a highly complex and multifaceted affair. Offers room for speculation. Laura Flöter presumably enjoys the puzzle, the unfinished, which is only located and determined by the individual observer. Yet things are clear. At first glance, at least. Keys, playing cards, dice, marbles. Fragments of text, small plastic toy animals, snail shells, shells. Shards of mirrors, lace and borders, scraps of fabric, even a whole doublet, pearls, even bones (are these Spare Ribs?) and a curly strand of hair can be discovered in her assemblages.

Laura Flöter’s overflowing material collages live up to their name. “Collage” comes from “to glue” (French “coller”). And indeed, Laura Flöter’s glue has to “do a lot of work” to keep the accumulation of all the materials together. An abundance of tiny things lies in several layers on the ground. And this abundance sometimes does not even remain within the frame, but floods over the defined edge at one or the other corner. The view of the superimposed, sometimes layered, surprisingly combined and interwoven elements is a journey of discovery through an enigmatic landscape. Familiar small everyday objects stand in unexpected neighbourhood and in the overall view seem like a kind of topographical study of a world that is both familiar and highly alienating. In short, Laura Flöter’s works weigh heavily.

Layer upon layer. With needle and thread

Laura Flöter’s canvas is in many places not only the underground, but also an independent protagonist. Recognizable in its material quality, and sometimes even built up in layers. The pieces on the canvas are partly sewn with shreds and cut-outs with coarse needlesticks.

In this exhibition here at the Hotel Villa Meererbusch, works are also presented that in part actually build on older works. And they are literally “built up”. For the reworkings of these older works are not “area-wide”, but leave, as it were, peepholes in the past. In this way, they document not least Laura Flöter’s artistic career.

Laura Flöter comes from painting. Laura Flöter did not leave the canvas with her material collages, but it is more than the background for the work, which grows upwards on it. And there is still an outer frame as a boundary. However, it is partially blown up and holds only what is necessary, reinforced with nail, needle and thread.

Laura Flöter also signs and dates her works with needle and thread. With coarse engravings the date of origin is stitched in a corner. And that is also the title of the work. This clearly defines the work. This is completely neutral and objective.

One or the other work still has a “speaking” name, quasi as a working title, on Laura Flöter’s website, or as part of an exhibition presentation. Simply for better orientation in the abundance of images. These titles are rather secondary for Laura Flöter (I asked her!), but it is simply too tempting for me. And now I have to let one of these “speaking names” flow into the interpretation. Namely: “Wicked wonderland”

“Wicked Wonderland”

Lewis Carrol’s “Alice in Wonderland” (1865) is rightly regarded as an icon of philosophical literature and is on many lists of “books to read”. The entanglements of logic, illogicality and indissoluble paradoxes in Alice Adventures in Wonderland offer a wealth of artistic inspiration to this day. Alice follows the talking white rabbit into a winding rabbit hole and gets into a strange world. A whole universe with strange figures, in which absurdities and contradictions result in their very own new logic. This world is indeed not friendly, but always highly unexpected. Consistently, perhaps, only in the impossibility of being “concluded” with a single interpretation.

In Laura Flöter’s “Wonderland” the unexpected, the newly connected, the undissolved play a significant role. “Wicked Wonderland” is a whole series of partly large-format material collages. Laura Flöter combines some tiny everyday objects made of various materials, which form multi-layered heaps, but also leave open spaces, to create seemingly organic sculptures. Carefully set color, which can be dull and gray, but also sets powerful colorful, sometimes garish accents. In Laura Flöter’s work, “Wonderland” and “wicked” enter into a mysterious connection in a sonorous alliteration. “Wicked” is a multi-layered adjective: evil, bad, dangerous, but also refined and seductive, sometimes even appreciatively “super” or “cool”. A highly dazzling term, therefore. And without context it is not at all unambiguous.

Laura Flöters Art as a Chamber of Wonders

In her works, Laura Flöter condenses things of all kinds into a densely woven, exciting, sometimes abstruse network of curiosities. Perhaps one is tempted to create new contexts of meaning, to develop a narrative, to give the supposed chaos a structure. Urging to decipher the presumed ciphers. Why is Sponge Bob sitting there, where do the small planes fly to? Is there a horizon back there? What do all the keys unlock? The shells and the snails? Who owns the doublet? Or the pearl strings? The titles of the works, such as “Gezeitentreibgut” (=”Flotsam”) , “Grenzland” (=”Borderland”) or “Das rote Schloss” (=”Red castle”) and “Der Schlüsselmeister” (=”Key master”) do not have a descriptive objectifying or even clarifying effect, but rather a highly mysterious one. Perhaps even a little gloomy?

Only if you allow this in your head. In any case, pictures make sense, precisely because we can hardly stand “empty spaces”. The interpretation is highly individual. And the process is exciting. Like the exploration of a “Wunderkammer” with its richly decorated boxes. Hidden drawers and symbolic ornaments in a mysterious art cabinet that does not separate natural objects from artefacts or art from craftsmanship.

Why not unlock Laura Flöter’s Chambers of Wonders? Enjoy your amazement, speculate, associate, connect, discover! Laura Flöter’s works are like a mysterious door. And indeed Laura Flöter takes this idea to extremes with her work “The 7 Beautiful Sisters / The Door”. For a completely glazed old front door is less a mere frame than a heavyweight gate into a mysterious world. All you have to do is turn the key and press the handle. Come in. Have fun!

Laura Flöter, Wasteland Villa. Exhibition at the Hotel Villa Meererbusch. Until winter 2019.

Vernissage on June 16, 2019, 15.00 o’clock.