Open Water, 2009

Installation: floor piece consisting of drawings, photocopies, inkjet prints, wooden panels, and glass.



Site-specific installation at the groupshow '3 artists selected by Dan Graham and a work by Dan Graham', curated by Dan Graham at 303 Gallery, New York

In Open Water I, the feeling of desire – the longing for objects behind glass – confronts that of isolation. The installation combines photocopies and enlarged prints from Gartz’s drawings and clippings archive. This is done in an associative way and plays with their graphic qualities and their sensuality, and by emphasises contrasts such as vulnerability and hardness, male and female, and darkness and light. The work also relates to movie titles, mood boards, storyboards, and ‘showcasing’.

Parts of the drawings and printed matter are covered by glass, and therefore are untouchable and hard. The other part of the work is unprotected, more open and vulnerable, which creates a different relationship to the images’ content. The subtle placement of the panels, both on the floor and slightly above it, evokes the idea of the piece as ‘flowing water’– as if the images can come and go, pop up and disappear, or continue beyond the space.