UNCANNY FELLY

In the organizer's words:

BURKHARD MÖNNICH

UNCANNY FELLY

May 3, 2024 - June 7, 2024

These monkeys do not hide the fact that they are paintings. In fact, they are through and through: In Burkhard Mönnich's paintings, we encounter characteristics that we think we know and recognize from a human context completely unashamedly as painted phenomena. Of course we know that these monkeys are stuffed animals. And we know just as well that these stuffed animals are painted - and yet how is it that they trigger such sudden feelings in us? The animals are depicted in such a complex way that it takes an analysis of the layers to decipher them. The "Uncanny Felly" series is based on an extensive collection of used Steiff stuffed animals, photographed in the same lighting and painted in perfect reproduction of all their characteristics. Every brushstroke is visible, and the closer we as viewers get to the large-format picture surfaces, the more intensely the painting itself becomes the subject. At what point do the objects recede in our perception, when do we no longer see the depicted motif, but the painting itself? With the reduced distance, not only do the local colors dissolve into abstract spectra, but a further dissolution occurs: The real environment of the artistic staging is reflected in the glass eyes of the Steiff animals. We can recognize the reflection of light, the window cross from the artist's studio reflected in the glass. Nothing conceals the art and the actual artistic question underlying the pictures. And last but not least, it is the title that hints at the reference to the actual theme to which Burkhard Mönnich devotes himself in this conceptual series: the Uncanny Valley refers to a phenomenon of human psychology...

Excerpt from the exhibition text by Johanna Adam

You can find the complete text and further information on the exhibition at www.petramartinetz.de