German artist Katharina Hinsberg’s installation titled Mitten, roughly translated as Middle, features a network of red beads hanging in a grid-like formation. Each crimson sphere is aligned with the next, creating an intriguing Matrix similar to Muti Randolph’s Deep Screen and somewhat reminiscent of Ana Soler’s Causa-Efecto. Similarly, Hinsberg’s installation is one that visitors can walk into and experience firsthand.
Mitten is part of a group exhibition called Rasterfahndung, the German word for “dragnet” that alludes to the common theme of grid art. The exhibition, as a whole, focuses on the importance of grids in art, following 1945. The purpose of grids expanded and drastically changed the art world, turning the common visual techniques used in mapping and science into an experimental approach in art. Incorporating parallel, crossing lines into artworks added to the avant-garde and pop art movements of the 20th and 21st centuries. The signature abstractness and repetition of lines and shapes from the movements can be seen in Mitten.
The installation is currently on display, along with the grid-inspired works of dozens of other artists at Kunstmuseum Stuttgart through October 7, 2012.
