It’s just about repeating, so repeat it, repeat it, repeat it.
An article on the work of Kaspar Ludwig
Kaspar Ludwig (b. 1989) Is a Swiss artist who’s installation ‘It’s just about repeating, so repeat it, repeat it, repeat it’ Infiltrates and assimilates amongst the works presented in ‘Becoming Habits: Chapter Two’ a three part exhibition series at Studi0, St Moritz, Switzerland.
A towering bed crawls and stumbles almost drunkenly into the room, lines are formed via the outline of black metal in a white space. Morphing into spindly legs that seem to inch up and slink towards you. It would bear ill will if it wasn’t for the legs being “long, disproportionate and ridiculous” as Ludwig puts it himself.
In stark contrast to the reach of the sprawling limbs, the body of the work consists of a small bed frame, fit for a child - an intricate mesh support woven with metal wire and held together with the same sprayed black metal, rubbery to the eye and touch. Viewed from a distance it almost resembles a drawing sketched in thick black marker from a fantastical place or a dream realm.
Don’t make the mistake of viewing the work as sinister via my gratuitous use of adjectives, there is no threat akin to Louise Bourgeois’s ‘Spider.’ There is comfort here, the bed has a subtle awkwardness, a shyness that puts you at ease - Welcoming you to lie down on its thick pink carpet, sink in and just be.
The bed itself is a conduit that ferries you to the dream world, an indicator of the cyclical nature of sleep. Other references of this repetition can be seen resting atop the pink carpet that acts as the stage for this installation. Ludwig himself was raised in Ticino by parents working in the theatre and has an obvious eye for the composition of interactable spaces and an infinity for ‘props.’
An embroidered curtain hangs from the ceiling, hand stitched with the words ‘Sator, Arepo, Tenet, Opera, Rotas’ a palindrome that's closest translation is ‘The creator performs his work cyclically.’ In reference to this the artist notes “the embroidered curtain is a reminder of cyclicity, of the day following the night, of the snake biting its own tail.”
This otherwise ambiguous phrase comes into focus when viewed in conjunction with the other objects that adroitly inhabit the space.
Three soaps, one formed into the shape of crossing toothbrushes, the other two in bowls alluding to the nightly ritual of cleanliness and purification. These soaps when concocted by the artist were infused with essential oils and Pheromones produced by pregnant women and those in all stages of breastfeeding - they contain calming properties and remind me of the ease of which I could fall asleep as a child when tucked into bed by my mother, ready for the dream world to take me.
Balls of dried earth congregating together at the corner of the installation arranged in a circle make me think of the non linear way this work explores repetition, I visualise the cycle, the endlessness and this reminder of eternity pulled straight from the earth on the journey of an artist.
Art by Kaspar Ludwig
Text by Elliot Stew
