08 Sep 2012

Herdentiere / Gregarious Animals at Galerie Queen Anne, Leipzig

Gallery Queen Anne presents a double exhibition of two young artists, Undine Bandelin and Dana Meyer, as a part of the Autumn Gallery Tour at the former cotton mill 'Spinnerei' on the 15th and 16th of September. The exhibition 'Herdentiere' (gregarious animals) displays great metal sculptures by Dana Meyer and large-format paintings by Undine Bandelin. Cattle, horses, goats, insects, and humans romp around on the canvases, entering the gallery the visitors will be greeted by life-sized sculptures.

The oldest known evidences of painted images are several thousand year old cave paintings of horses and mammoths. However humans started to draw themselves shortly after. From the past to the present men and animals have constantly been the subjects of artistic explorations.

A herd refers to a social grouping of certain animals from the same species, especially mammals and most particularly the grazing ungulates. These social groupings differ from a few to a several thousand of individuals per group. Goats, cows, bulls, deer, and horses are one of the most common gregarious animals. Meanwhile more new species are assigned as a part of the group mentioned above – for example cockroaches and earthworms, which do not belong to mammals. According to current research earth worms tend to act in a similar way as some mammals. Studies show earth worms communicate by gathering in groups and make collective decisions regarding to direction changes by touching each other.

During the double show 'Herdentiere' Undine Bandelin and Dana Meyer will exhibit representatives of previously mentioned species in social interaction as well as single animals. The main focuses of Undine Bandelin are large-format paintings of herds and loners, community and isolation. With expressive gesture and bright colors on canvas, Bandelin captures the characteristics of each animal genus. Movement and dynamic play the major role on Undine's paintings of sheep, goats, horses and crowds.

Even the heavy weighing life-size bull which Dana Meyer fully built from forged steel plates is still frozen in motion. But also smaller creatures made out of the steel inhabit the gallery. Different insects made out of hammered steel are trapped forever in glass jars. Next to them you can find a potbellied human stretched out on his back sculptured out of metal.

Gallery Queen Anne invites you to experience contemporary reflection between 'men' and 'animal'. The exhibition opens in part of the Autumn Gallery Tour on Saturday September 15th from 11 am to 9 pm and on Sunday September 16th from 11 am to 6 pm at the Spinnerei. The exhibition will be running until October 20th.