Stefan Brüggemann

Hyper-Palimpsest (Gold)

Hyper-Palimpsest (Gold) is part of a larger body of work, made during the lockdown in 2020 that pulls from the artists existing Text Pieces. These laconic texts use the kind of language we most often encounter in our accelerated digital lives. Such set phrases have a semiotic character, like hazard signs, that evoke learned responses. The presentation of this language as shortened modern poems, offers a caustic perspective on that modernity, while the staccato rhythms of these sloganistic lines mirror the relentlessness of newsfeed culture.

Of the larger, painted 'OK OK' text disguised in the layers of the work, Brüggemann has said: “There is inherent uncertainty in the word ‘OK’ and seeing it in this context subverts our expectations – is it a symbol of acceptance or resignation or even hope? It can be ironic, it can be optimistic, it can be negative. It makes you think and doubt what is OK.”

Working with Gold leaf as the main medium in the works, Brüggemann speaks of how gold fluctuates between being an economic power and a spiritual power. These fluctuations during this time of uncertainty, question its real value.

Stefan Brüggemann was born in 1975 in Mexico City, and lives and works between Mexico City and London. Span¬ning – and sometimes combining – sculpture, video, painting, and drawing, Brüggemann’s work deploys text in conceptual installations rich with acerbic social critique and a post-pop aesthetic.