TAL R: EGGS ON TOUR 2008-2009
11.12.2008 - 7.1.2009
Gallery Kalhama & Piippo Contemporary, Helsinki
The exhibition tour of the versatile artist Tal R is arriving to Helsinki in December as a result of a co-operation between Gallery Kalhama & Piippo Contemporary and Fritz Hansen. In his exhibition Tal R has used very special material - the classic Egg chair by Danish designer Arne Jacobsen. The new colourful patchwork of the object is now made of the combination of recycled material collected from around the world. Tal R has created 50 unique interpretations of the classic chair in honour of its 50th anniversary.
– Tal R has been given completely free hands in this project so the exhibition is his creation, says art historian Pilvi Kalhama, the artistic director of the gallery.
For the artist the shape of the chair evoked associations to fertility and the ability to create new life. These allusions are combined with Tal R’s fascination with the Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist Sigmund Freud. Each creation by Tal R is named after writings by Freud or after names of Freud’s closest family members and friends.
– Tal R is an artist who smoothly moves between different cultural areas. Today many artists cross the categories of visual culture, many of them hope that they could, Pilvi Kalhama reflects.
– For a contemporary art gallery the project exhibition like this is an interesting experiment and an opportunity to show the versatile work of the artist who carries such high current interest. In addition, the exhibition raises questions about where the line between fine art and design is drawn, Kalhama states.
The fifty chairs started their world tour in Milan in April and to Helsinki they come from Japan. From Kalhama&Piippo Tal R:s exhibition tour continues to Paris and New York.
Born in Tel Aviv and raised in Copenhagen Tal R graduated from the Royal Danish academy of Arts and is now a professor at the Dusseldorf Academy of Arts. His solo exhibitions have been held in New York, Dublin, Berlin and London.
Gallery Kalhama & Piippo Contemporary