1st – 23rd of June 2012

New York-based Austrian artist Martin Roth breaks the polarity between culture and nature, tripping up the art business with perishable installations and mischievous romanticism.In SECOND NATURE, Roth’s latest work has Reinisch Contemporary flooded, overgrown and inhabited.Roth: “In my work, I consciously cross the boundary that separates art and life. […] My pieces exist in real time, and this time passes slowly, leisurely, and follows the natural run of things.”Installation and performance. Object and subject. Aliveness and inanimateness. In Roth’s work, fronts collide, only to blend into each other.In 2011, he released goldfish in the Chinese Garden of the Metropolitan Museum in New York. In 2010, he turned crickets loose in a factory hall and raised ducklings in his studio.

Curator Günther Holler-Schuster about SECOND NATURE:

“What may seem quite critical, alluding to the careless treatment of our environment, also attains a highly poetic, at times almost yearning character. It is elements of nature, like water, plants, sounds, creatures, which Roth transforms into installation and image. By doing that, the artist assumes a mediated perception of nature, which lets us experience nature in its artificial way.”

SECOND NATURE is the first exhibition to take over both of Reinisch Contemporary spaces at the same time: a gallery in central Graz, Austria, as well as premises at Kalsdorf Castle, a medieval stronghold in Eastern Styria. This allows the audience to experience Roth’s current work in two completely different environments, both steeped in history.

Roth adds:

“My work oscillates between installation, conversation and rumour. Because my pieces are transient, my installations are often points of departure rather than end points. In the best of cases they succeed in creating a small fissure in reality for a little while.”

Press Release