Wolf von Waldow – Hand before the eyes

Opening Speech by Christian Weller of the Exhibition "Die Hand vor Augen", Neuer Kunstverein Wuppertal, January 2019

1. Poetic Pictograms

Pictograms help us navigate a complex and overcrowded world. They are the epitome of a functionalist modernity, whose self-assured slogans were “progress,” “reason,” “efficiency,” “mass production,” and “satellite cities.” The terms that describe our world today, however, come more from the realm of natural disasters: “data flood,” “centrifugal acceleration,” “erosion of certainties,” “shit storms”… As a creator of images, Wolf von Waldow rescues the pictogram into this new era—and simultaneously takes it to absurd extremes. The symbolic, the reduction, the two-dimensionality, and the semiotic claims of his works stand in the tradition of functionalist orientation emblems. But the signs shown in the exhibition do not point the way. They pose questions. They leave contradictions suspended. They embrace disorientation.

The work Refugee Camp from 2009, for example, uses the pictogram for an escape route. Yet it is arranged in a circle and woven as an ornament into a background carpet. Instead of a clear path to an exit, the background noise of constant movement is revealed.

What is mounted here on tubular posts are not traffic signs, but rather “contemplation signs” reflecting our era of polyphony, commodity fetishism, and the search for meaning.

2. Ornament and Subversion

Rocaille, decorative patterns, pictograms, applied art… About thirty years ago, Wolf von Waldow practically entered the temple of art through the servants’ entrance—and met considerable resistance. It has been a long path until it became fully acceptable to us for logos, advertising, video clips, and objects of “low” everyday life to appear on gallery walls. At the same time, he draws from the collection of allegory, décor, and wallpaper, mixing it with silhouettes popular in Romanticism and quotations from church art—still skirting taboo zones today.

A brief note: for centuries, ornament was a refuge for marginalized visual worlds. While the Madonna smiled brightly from the altar in the center of the space, grotesque figures cavorted in the foliage of the capitals. I like the idea that Wolf von Waldow, with his ambiguous emblems—almost from the sidelines—questions erratic certainties. In the seemingly harmless play of forms, the uncomfortable contradictions of grand narratives are mirrored: homeland and migration, environment and individual, commerce and meaning.

Wolf von Waldow uses wallpaper, the epitome of homeliness, to bring crises, flight, and displacement as omens to the wall. Floor plans of an average three-room apartment appear as part of an infinite puzzle. Looking closer, images of soldiers and autocrats adorn the wall. The inhabitant is placed as a void in the middle, almost a negative of the silhouettes of the other works. Do not be fooled by decorative charm in the newer works! In the “Masterplan” station Hope, a pretty branch motif turns out to be the logo of the agritech giant Monsanto. In the station Safari, barely noticeable, a raven holds a ring in its beak—the heraldic animal of the racist commander of German South-West Africa.

3. The Creative Apparatus

Examples like these abound in Wolf von Waldow’s works. They are also visual puzzles and “search images” that invite active participation.

This is immediately apparent in the wallpaper work Refugee Camp. Here, ornamental carpets of logos and media fragments overlap. The symbolized screen seems to provide a frame, yet the densely layered visual creations in silhouette catch the eye. I like the idea that these are the patched-together fragments of memory filtered by the overwhelmed media user from the data noise.

In the current works—the Narratives and stations of Masterplan—these silhouettes emerge from the background and stand on their own. The monochromatic black laser cuts in steel initially convey a strong impression of clarity and motif reduction. The full extent of their semantic overdetermination only becomes apparent on closer inspection.

A rifle becomes a telescope. Bombs turn into houseflies. The pieces of a lamb are labeled with the names of the world’s oceans. The frame around the animal appears as a briefcase. A crank at the side calls this interpretation into question again: is it a projector? Or a barrel organ playing an endless litany? A forest becomes a seesaw, the earth a gym ball…

In this semiotic universe, objects gain unexpected potential. Fragments of meaning shrink, grow, and wander from their contexts. Their assembly in a space-less plane generates a grammar of transformation. Like in a dream or in play, a universe emerges with its own rules and daily realities—fascinating precisely because it remains somewhat alien to us.

4. In the Garden of Symbols

The proverbial situation of not seeing one’s hand in front of one’s eyes—a moment of ultimate disorientation. Yet the image that comes to mind is perfectly clear: a person groping in the dark, holding their hand to their face for reassurance. In the world of idioms, complex life circumstances are translated into the theater of simple actions. One jumps over one’s own shadow, picks the raisins out of the cake, and cannot see the forest for the trees.

This type of symbolism provides the raw material for Wolf von Waldow’s image worlds. Someone is left hanging, made a fool of, teetering on the edge. Like in horticulture, the artist grafts new shoots onto old plants. Now one burned child warns another, someone brings their flag to safety, another hangs their sheep to the wind. New brooms sweep their own grave. I like the image of novel plants with idiosyncratic growth emerging this way. Seen this way, the steles can also be understood as symbolically fertilized blossoms, and the exhibition as a garden inviting strolling and observation.

5. Surreal World Theater

Perhaps you know Bruegel’s famous painting The Netherlandish Proverbs. In a densely packed scene, various 16th-century peasants and citizens engage in peculiar activities. Only upon reading the title do we understand their behavior on another level.

Wolf von Waldow similarly lets his figures act symbolically, creating surreal scenes. Usually, they are individuals, sometimes pairs, inviting identification. How did the protagonist get there? What on earth is he doing? What happens next? It is not easy to answer these questions, for familiar rules no longer apply.

In Narrative 1, the thinker’s figure crouches on a broken board game.

Wolf von Waldow would say that he wants to depict exactly this: the uncertain, the confused, the search. But isn’t this openness also wonderful? Because it generates so many possibilities! I also see in the figures my friend Wolf, playing in his studio with fragments of meaning, recombining them to create enigmatic, poetic, and fascinating worlds. Image worlds that are subversive toward entrenched certainties, open to interpretation, encouraging exploration—and independent thought. In this sense, I invite you to stroll, observe, take a few steps in the dark, and exchange thoughts on the proverbial hand before the eyes.