Patricia Low Contemporary, St. Moritz, presents Fama -Good and bad speech after death, a two-person summer exhibition by Berlin based artists Stefan Rinck and Gabriel Vormstein.
In Roman mythology Fama is the goddess of fame and renown; a deity of literary conception whose gossip could praise or slander a person.
For the exhibition Rinck presents a series of sculptures carved from sandstone, a material used in Gothic cathedrals. These forms are ironic, sometimes kitsch conceptions of seemingly antique representations with the overarching theme ‘From Ovation to Resignation- From Emperor to Dwarf’. The menagerie of comically chimerical creatures ranges from serpents, snakes, demons, and owls, to noble personages, even pin-up girls. They have titles such as Napoleon Owl, The Storm, The frightened King, Agitator Owl, The Executioner, Leviathan, Inquisitor, Crusader, The Vampire and Ichneumon. These monstrosities allude to the dissolution of Western empire’s past and present with its propaganda, agitation, proletarian utopias, and austerity. Installed on an enormous low pedestal they are protagonists of derision and doubt that mock the ceremonial pomposity of today’s power brokers. Surrounded by dubious court jesters, the diminished kings of the world are reduced into frightened dwarfs.
