David Zwirner is pleased to present Michael Riedel's first exhibition in the London gallery.
In line with the artist's method of "record, label, playback," the works in the exhibition are variations of existing material from Riedel's own repertoire and beyond. Employing a variety of media and techniques, they share, in the artist's own words, an "aesthetic interest in the faults of transmission and transference." Presented on both floors of the gallery, his honeycomb panels and PowerPoint paintings are devised from earlier poster paintings, which themselves were made with ephemera from other projects. These works, in turn, form the basis of text-based wallpaper. The Proposals for Change of MODERN are part of a series of banners derived from the logos of selected institutions. Cut out in black fabric, the new logos can be hung in different orientations on the wall and are also used as "stencils" for subsequent works on canvas. Shown here are variations on the logo of The Modern Institute in Glasgow, where Riedel participated in a group exhibition in 2008.
Posters and flyers from Oskar-von-Miller Strasse 16–the art space in Frankfurt which Riedel founded with Dennis Loesch in 2000–are displayed in an extensive configuration on a single wall in the gallery, and include a small photograph depicting people gathered around a table in Andy Warhol's Factory. Riedel once staged the composition by arranging friends in similar positions at Oskar-von-Miller Strasse 16, and for this exhibition, he has built to measure the original table according to the photograph. The recreation of objects and places has been a long-standing part of his practice, and here extends to include the backdrop to the Pop artist's table. Yet rather than creating reproductions that could be mistaken for the originals, Riedel's focus is on the process of the copying act and everything that happens along the way. Part of an overriding system devised by the artist that autonomously and continuously spurs new work, they occupy the distinction between the original and the copy.
Coinciding with the exhibition will be the launch of Oskar, an updated version of an artist book first published in 2003. While the earlier volume documented the first three years of activities at Oskar-von-Miller Strasse 16, this new edition chronicles the ensuing ten years, including various relocations of the venue following the deconstruction of the original building. The design and production of books occupy a stand-alone part of Riedel's practice, and Oskar is at once a record and a perpetuation of the "record, label, playback" dictum.
The exhibition marks the tenth anniversary of Riedel's Freitagsküche, a restaurant-type space first opened in 2004 at Oskar-von-Miller Strasse 16 in Frankfurt. A meeting point and "place in social reality," which serves communal dinners on Friday nights and more recently also lunch from Monday to Friday, Freitagsküche moves to London for the private dinner following the opening night in its first appearance outside of Germany.