Come In: Interior design as a contemporary art medium in Germany presents many of Germany's leading contemporary artists to New Zealand audiences from September 27.

Come In, a major international touring exhibition makes its only Australasian appearance in New Plymouth. The most significant exhibition of contemporary German art to reach New Zealand shores in a generation, Come In appears at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery between showings in Moscow and Tokyo.

The exhibition investigates the intricate relationship between interior design and contemporary art. Objects, sculptures, installations and video works will be presented from 25 leading German artists.
As well one Australian and one New Zealand artist have been especially invited to contribute works for the Australasian leg of the tour.

Works in the exhibition take architectural and interior design concepts, and approach them not from the angle of designer or architect, but as contemporary art commentator. Objects and interiors become the subject of the artwork, rather than the art itself.

Familiar scenes and items are digested by the artists, and represented in a slightly different language – that of contemporary art. The everyday concerns of interior designers and architects - form and function - are not applicable to the works in the exhibition. The artists look away from these concerns and instead investigate the purely artistic nature of interior design. In doing this the artists explore modern society's demonstration of domesticity and social belonging through choices of décor.

"20 years ago, at the height of the cold war, the former National Art Gallery in Wellington presented Wild, Visionary, Spectral, the seminal German exhibition that reflected cultural and political anxieties of the time. Come In reveals a distinct change in mood", said Govett-Brewster Art Gallery Director Greg Burke.

"With their interest in domesticity and design the artists in Come In have more in common with Pop Art of the 1960s. More than ever we are surrounded with images of perfect home décor in commercial advertising, films and glossy magazines. The artists in Come In suggest that the brand names we fill our houses with give fascinating information about us - our social, aesthetic and political orientation," said Mr Burke.

"The works focus on human behaviour, and examine social and psychological factors involved in the choice and presentation of home architecture", said Mr Burke.

Heide Deigert's Revolving chair, two red and two white seats positioned as one unit of a turntable pedestal, suggests where the visitor sits on this four-seater arrangement and reflects how and who they choose to communicate with and for how long.  

Hermann's doner inn by Claus Fottinger (illustrated at right) studies the German snack bar and sausage-stand tradition and how contemporary society uses standardised forms.  On a tour of Germany, the artist filmed 265 kebab stands with a video camera. One hundred stills, stitched together, enclose the installation of a bar with an oversized McDonald's corporate logo. The artist will be operating the bar for the opening weekend on 27-28 September.

Erik Schmidt and the collaborative work of Andree Korpys and Markus Loffler set out to disturb the viewer's idea of what an interior should offer. Schmidt superimposes the words DO NOT DISTURB, over a photograph of a sunny conservatory. Attracted to the room the viewer becomes irritated when they are then requested to stay out.

Korpys and Loffler's Conspirative home-living project ll recreates a 1990s version of the interior of a terrorist's apartment. The work is based on photographic evidence of furnishings found in the apartment of a terrorist who attacked a Bremen bank in 1977. The artists recreate the apartment, generating a sense of unease, and raise questions as to the role of aesthetic objects in the domestic environment of a terrorist.

The surreal work of Isa Melsheimer Chaiselongue l (Maar) attempts to introduce nature into the home and provides a contrast to the violent references of Korpys and Loffler. The upholstered couch turns into its own landscape with multicoloured embroidered flowers, birds and insects stitched into the fabric.

Hans Hemmert's canary-yellow latex balloon sculptures express his eccentric sense of humour and his interest in residents' experiences. Some of his projects feature a balloon hung in a room and some are performances where Hemmert acts inside a balloon. Photographs document private scenes played out in the artist's apartment. In Saturday Afternoon at Home in Neukolln Hemmert sits alone in a room lined with bright yellow latex to convey the feeling of being a stranger in a familiar environment.

Daniel Roth's installations offer visitors a journey of discovery based upon the concept of the German town of Schramberg being covered in concrete. The works lead viewers on a route underneath the concrete surface, through houses and rooms, to reach the kiosk of a cigarette, lottery and pornographic magazine seller known as Porno Bihl.

John Bock, familiar to New Zealand audiences from the 2001 Artspace exhibition Handicraft,  presents a video work capturing an event named  'Captain Sheriff sails dryly'. In the work, Bock pilots a self made watercraft while performing a range of acts using a diverse range of equipment – a clock, a painted picture, a copy of Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, while giving a lecture, and plays out a dialogue between a doll and a set of false teeth.

Gregor Schneider is represented by the work that won the Golden Lion in 2001, the top prize of the Venice Biennale. In the work he recreates his childhood home. The model home challenges visitors by forcing them through small and difficult spaces, making them feel claustrophobic and unwelcome.  

Rising artist Tobias Rehberger presents a picturesque still-life (right) comprising several organically shaped pastel-coloured segments. Atop this pedestal sits an array of seeming domestic objects that explore the nature of artistic production and the roles of both designer and artist.

The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery has also been invited to select the works of two Australasian artists for inclusion in the exhibition. Australian artist Callum Morton and Taranaki's David Clegg have been selected to present works that follow the themes of Come In. 

"We are pleased to be able to present the work of New Zealand and Australian artists in a show of this calibre." said Mr Burke.

Morton, the Gallery's International Artist in Residence in 1997, presents a Model of destroyed stairs, a photographic record of the dismantling of the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery's own staircase in 1980, which was subsequently remodelled as a permanent architectural installation by conceptual artist Billy Apple. David Clegg presents Imaginary museum, a study of the artistic and aesthetic aspirations that informed the recent upsurge of new museum architecture in Europe.

The exhibition also includes work by Bettina Allamoda, Matti Braun, Bjorn Dahlem, Tobias and Raphael Danke, Christina Doll, Stefan Eberstadt, Christian Flamm, Dorothee Golz, Eva Hertzsch/Adam Page, Stefan Kern, Peter Rosel, Silke Schatz, Tilo Schulz, Johannes Spehr, Jorg Wagner and Corinna Weidner. All of the German artists featured in Come in are included in the current major Taschen publication 150 artists of the new millennium, featuring their pick of artists from around the world

Come-in: Interior design as a contemporary art medium in Germany September 27 – November 30 continues New Plymouth's Govett-Brewster Art Gallery's commitment to presenting the latest developments in contemporary art.

For further information contact:
Greg Burke, Director, 06 758 5149
Antony Rhodes, Marketing Manager, 06 759 0852

Image: Comunications Model (detail) Dorothee Golz, 1997