Klemens Gasser

2012

Book, 20.9 x 13.7 cm, 86 p, language: English, publisher: Self-published by the artist, ISBN: N/A.
Materials: ink, paper

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp. (Inv. no. B 2025/475).

Literary synopsis

Less encounters Sandra. They fall in love and travel to the East end dealing with sex in the woods, an exhibition price list and the small things in life that count.

Relation of the novel to the artist’s practice

Less exists as book and as sculpture with the novels stacked on the floor and a sign above inviting to take one (Antigone Things, exhibition 2012.) Klemens Gasser is a painter. His paintings are raw canvases. Their titles are stories, either Meditation records or Masturbation Stories. The titles, usually 1 to 3 pages long, are printed on letter sized paper and glued to the back of the canvases. They are not visible when you look at the canvas although you see folds and a relief in the canvas from the contracted glue and paper on the back. They float mostly in the centre. But the title goes with the work and can be found in the checklist or on labels if such are used. Gasser’s paintings start on a computer, or more precisely on a digital recorder for Meditation Paintings and a blackberry for Masturbation Paintings. Telling stories is his art. Breaking language is his inconsistent goal. Sticking his head out of language, not possible but trying, killing narration, without talent or guts. There is distraction, unknown, disappearing, confusion, and always language that dictates the form of your thoughts and your actions and unsatisfaction that comes with that.