Raphaela Riepl: adorable steamed sea urchin
March 4th to March 31st
Opening Reception: March 4th 7-11pm
174 Franklin Street, Brooklyn 11222 (G Train: Greenpoint Avenue)
Opening Hours: Wed/Thurs: 11am-3pm; Fri/Sat: 3-7pm
The Final Feast
Flying Teeth (Aaron Diskin, William Haugh) in concert
Sat March 26th 7pm – midnight
Open Source Gallery presents Raphaela Riepl’s new installation in a pop-up space in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York.
Riepl’s work is made of boxes, drawings, words, Christmas lights, various found objects and detritus. In an attempt to catch the intensity of the moment, Riepl finds ways to realize an idea in a raw style. Simple but not simplistic, her installation cleverly pictures an idea in unadorned beauty.
It is a collection of Riepl’s mind, seemingly placed at random and constantly moving, revealing itself fully over a period of time. The work seemingly adjusts itself to one’s angle or mood, allowing an emersion into one narrative stream or another as dark irony and humor abound. Riepl’s work does not try to tell a story, but is a puzzle to be completed by the viewer. “I get started with whatever can drive me there,” Riepl says about her approach, “probably I get somewhere else pretty soon, because it evolves every second. And I can’t deny that I like entertaining myself, so you really gotta be tricky to surprise your own mind. I guess it’s all part of a process, which doesn’t mean it can’t feel awesome in the state it is. ”
The reoccurrence of sea creatures in her work can be taken as a desire to float through bright colors surrounded by dull sounds. “The vast area of water surface on the earth is very fascinating”, says Riepl. “I like to combine my imagination of underwater life with what’s going on in the city. To some extent it might be a drifting from reality, but rather I see it as my freedom to perceive the world in my own way. I don’t believe there exists this one kind of reality that makes a universal truth.”
In Open Source Gallery, Raphaela Riepl’s installation also hosts a night of concerts. The performance, titled The Final Feast, not only integrates the band into the show, but also the show into the band. The whole exhibition will be reinstalled and the works will be modified. After having the original on view for three weeks, it is reinstalled and the objects come to life and dress up for the final show. The performance is a collaboration between the artist and musicians Aaron Diskin and William Haugh.
