Silke Schatz was born on 1967 in Celle, Germany. Silke Schatz presents a personal portrait of the city Celle in Northern Germany, the town where she was born. It reveals two aspects of the town, private and public.

Silke Schatz’s sculptures and drawings reflect her interest in architecture as both public and private space. A large portion of work in this collection revolves around an investigative description of her home town of Celle, Germany. Borrowing her aesthetics from Neues Bauen architect Otto Haesler, who was working in Celle in the 1930s, these works combine the bold colours and futuristic design of that period, as well as their associations with civic progress and optimism. In pieces such as Mothership, Schatz’s concentric orb is suspended as a mobile, its varying layers suggesting a balanced microcosm or engineering model. Finished on the exterior with the buoyant shades of 20th century idealism, the calculated façade conceals layers of images and text belying its authoritarian construction.

Schatz’s drawings merge this inbetweeness of imposed structure and intimate negotiation. Based on Haesler’s own sketches, Elephantenhaus and Celle, Siedlung Georgsgarten appear as both architectural blueprint and ephemeral fantasy. Altering the original subjects to reflect her own sense of invention, Schatz’s drawings illustrate concrete space as a malleable construct, both directing and being informed by the viewer’s own memories and experiences.Schatz did not know until she began her research, that this architecture existed and it was a surprise for her to see his beautiful buildings, reduced in form, with colour as a simple method to underline the architecture. In this show, she has made models of two of his buildings. The first model, Georgsgardenblock, is painted back to the buildings original colours after a lithograph from Karl Völkers. She has also added a wall mural in the style of 1970s naive painting.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2006
• Private / Public, Wilkinson Gallery, London
• Radical Self-Wurzlekind, Bomann - Museum Celle und Kunstverein Celle, Germany

2005
• Terezin, Meyer Riegger Gallery, Karlsruhe, Germany
• Terezin, Kunstverein und Stiftung Springhornhof, Neuenkirchen

2003
• The Kleinfamilie, Wilkinson Gallery, London

2002
• Exhibition with Johannes Wohnseifer, Kornelimuenster, Aachen, Germany

2001
• Ich merkte, dass was passiert war, denn ich bin ja nicht dumm.’, Borgmann & Nathusius, Cologne
• verorten, Meyer Riegger Galerie, Karlsruhe

Conclusions:

Silke Schatz’s drawings illustrate concrete space as a malleable construct, both directing and being informed by the viewer’s own memories and experiences.Schatz did not know until she began her research, that this architecture existed and it was a surprise for her to see his beautiful buildings.

What to Do Next...

Find more information about Silke Schatz Exhibitions or looking for his paintings please visit us on http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/silke_schatz.htm