The pictorial objects of Axel Reusch

The work of Axel Reusch (Freiburg, 1970) calls for our powers of interpretation. The majority of the works undeniably refer to packing material. Some even give the impression that Reusch has done little more than to subject the original material to a number of simple painterly processes, and in such a way that a two-dimensional image is created. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth: Reusch only refers to specific materials, but he does not actually use them. He is primarily interested in the realization of an entirely new abstract image. Such an image does indeed refer to the original, but nonetheless appeals chiefly to the here and now, and initiates a dialogue with the observer.
That observer is invited to pose questions and to formulate the accompanying answers. Axel Reusch fixes his work onto aluminium or MDF bases (This causes some of the objects to hang at a slight distance from the wall and thus become threedimensional). He calls them ‘pictorial objects’.
Reusch’s objects display both minimalist and constructivist qualities; neither movement, however, is an unequivocal label that can be applied to his work. He finds a precise interpretation of such objects far less important than their spatial effect. And he represents this by referring to the frame or window design used in many packing materials. Furthermore, the three-dimensionality proves not to be an optical illusion, but is also genuine: Reusch paints his works in epoxy resin, which he mixes with pigments, thus creating colour. As soon as the resin has dried, he can paint a new layer on top etc, etc. When all is finished, a layer of gloss varnish is applied. Thus the layered forms and three-dimensionality of the original find expression in Reusch’s objects by means of a painted and partly reflective relief. Not that Reusch wishes to make an exact copy of the original; for him the point is rather to represent the original (source) in all its pictorial qualities.

Something simple on the bottom of a packet of sugar, which he regards as anti-design, can readily be transformed into a work of art in which a clear abstract language of form and the transparency of the material come to the fore. The titles of his pieces sometimes also contain vague references to the source from which the work derives.
In other works by Reusch the formal aspects again correspond with the traces of use of the original: plastic sheets in which symmetrical patterns have been stamped, provide the motivation for a piece on aluminium in which every detail of the original sheet is reproduced very precisely in black epoxy resin. The increase in scale and the representation of the original reliefs in epoxy resin on an aluminium base produces an abstract image, which goes much further than the original industrial sheet. The same can undoubtedly be said of his enlarged reproduction of a simple slide frame, or a pair of stickers that Reusch has elevated to a repeating abstract image.
A third direction in the work of Axel Reusch is the epoxy resin ‘paintings’ that hang on the wall without a base. Here it can be said that the image and the object fuse together to form a whole. Pieces of the resin can break off when the base, upon which the resin was initially applied, is removed. This introduces the factor of chance into his work, a factor, which to a large degree determines the definitive image.
At first sight the imagery in the work of Axel Reusch appears somewhat formal, but the choice of subject and materials used also certainly give the work humorous and sensitive qualities as well. This may perhaps be because, despite his formal points of departure and the fact that these leave little room for intuition, the aspect of chance has nonetheless crept into his work. The analytical mind of this remarkable, philosophically inclined artist appears unable to prevent the creative process from taking its own course, to some extent.

Etienne Boileau
(journalist & communication-adviser)