210 x 300cm, 175 fixtures, 300m copper wire
copper wire, soldered together into one long string,
wall-mounted with hand-made porcellain fixtures
Under the term “connection,” the dictionary names as an example of the meaning “cohesion, link” the production of a connection between two wires by soldering—which is precisely what lies at the heart of the work bind link mend tie join merge connect patch knit lock adhere hold attach by Judith Fegerl: A copper wire runs vertically through two rows of wall-mounted ceramic brackets, the distance between which defines the height of the work and the number of which determines its width. The end of one copper wire is soldered to the next, so that in the finished installation—always arranged around a corner—a continuous wire runs through all the brackets like a warp in weaving. The minimal aesthetics and material fragility in combination with the descriptive title inevitably draw our attention to the process of doing, to the fact that the work only emerges during its installation with the aid of a specific means of connecting its elements and is reduced back to those elements after an exhibition. That this is a thermal process is just as characteristic of Fegerl’s artistic practice as the choice of materials, bearing in mind she is interested in precisely those intersections that cause an overlap between physics and the physical, technology and aesthetics.
Text: Luisa Ziaja, Specular Windows, 21er Haus, 2017