LOCATION
Städtische Galerie
CHACAHOULA
Neon Relief
The artwork is a graphic composition of various colored, curved neon lines and empty, unmarked tin cans as well as plug connections, cables, and a transformer.
The title “Chacahoula” refers to the river “Chacahoula Bayou”. Keith Sonnier has developed a series of works that touch on places and landscapes in Louisiana – such as the swamps of the Atchafalaya Basin, the areas inhabited by the Okalousa Indians, or the parish of Ouachita Parish.
The large-format drawing can be read as a snapshot of Louisiana’s esprit, in which indigenous and African, French, and Spanish influences meet. Colors and shapes represent the attitude to life expressed in jazz, zydeco, blues, and Cajun, as well as in the masks and costumes of MARdi Gras, a variant of the carnival.
KEITH SONNIER (1941 — 2020)
Keith Sonnier’s works include drawings, sculptures, installations and performances. In addition to artistic experiments with innovative, industrial textiles, plastics and metals, from the 1960s he developed an extensive group of works in which he used light, especially neon, as a drawing material. He composed the interplay of neon with transparent surfaces made of glass or acrylic glass, reflective materials such as stainless steel and light-responsive color carriers such as phosphorescent pigments. The hand-formed neon line acts as a counterpoint to the other industrial materials and shapes.
He speaks of “BA-O-BA, of bathing in light”. His concepts are not only aesthetically motivated, but are also embedded in cultural or spiritual narratives. “I discovered the term (BA-O-BA) on a trip through Haiti with Matta Clark. One evening we were standing in front of a fishing boat that had been baptized with this name. The fisherman explained to us that the Creole term could be translated as ‘bathing in the moonlight’,” said the artist.
EXHIBITIONS
2024 New York (us) DIA ART FOUNDATION
2021 Nuremberg (de), NEW MUSEUM
2019 St. Gallen (ch), MUSEUM OF ART
2019 New Orleans (us), NOMA
2019 Derneburg (de), DERNEBURG CASTLE
2018 Water Mill (us), PARRISH Art Museum
2016 London (uk), WHITECHAPEL GALLERY
2015 Nice (fr), MUSEE D’ART MODERNE ET D’ART CONTEMPORAIN
2002 Berlin (de), NEUE NATIONAL-GALERIE
Since 1968 regular exhibitions, mainly in Europe and the USA
STUDIES
1965 — 1966 New Jersey (us), RUTGERS UNIVERSITY, DOUGLAS COLLEGE: MA
1959 — 1963 Lafayette (us), SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA UNIVERSITY: BA
BIO
2020 Died in Southampton (us)
1941 Born in Mamou (us)
REFERENCE
ZUMTOBEL COLLECTION
Thanks to the cooperation with the Zumtobel Collection, classic positions in the art history of light can also be shown. These artists paved the way for artistic work with light after the Second World War: François Morellet (1926 – 2016) was a co-founder of the GRAV (Group de Recherche d’Art Visuel) artists’ group, active in France and Latin America. Keith Sonnier (1941 – 2020) was one of the pioneers in the USA who began translating drawings into neon light in the 1960s. He later developed a series of light spaces entitled BA-O-BA to bathe in light. Brigitte Kowanz (1957 – 2022) focussed on the drawing quality of light.