Andreas Sell : Guideline to eat a slice of toast within eight bites – In the forest

04.04 – 05.05.2024

Andreas Sell’s installations mostly present moments from his life. They are a kind of diary that shows a strategic method within the conventions of our capitalist society, which are simultaneously subjected to critical analysis. A question that has been discussed since the 1960s runs like a thread through his works: Where does the private sphere merge into the public sphere?

The installation “Guideline to eat a slice of toast in eight bites” refects Sell’s parental household. His mother tends to hoard things. To such a degree that in 2013 the entire household was overfowing and resembled chaos.

Hoarding is refected in the behavior of the post-war generation of World War II. A period when people had little and started to collect and store, because you never know if times will get bad again and you could use the things to survive. So, they continue to collect until the situation gets out of control and the things that are supposed to guarantee survival become a psychological burden. This existential fear is carried by the next generation. Sell tried to rid himself of this burden by dissolving the parental household.

The installation “In the forest” shows the next situation. Eleven years have passed and the artist lives in a small village. He leads a secluded life in the countryside. Contact with nature takes the place of life in the city. A new relationship with nature can be observed in a whole generation. Organic products are fnding more and more buyers and after the pandemic, home offce work allows city dwellers to move to the countryside. Rural people are experiencing a new neighborhood. “In the forest” is a city dweller’s view of nature. A stranger acclimatizing to the new environment.

The ceramics depict concrete objects such as a cooker top or a forest, but they are abstracted in their representation. Deformations, simplifcations or combinations of several objects in one create the fantastic and tale-like character of the installations. Like interpretations of a story, they refect the actual life of the artist, who always fails and succeeds at the same time in his search for a balanced life.

Andreas Sell

In the forest – # 1, 2024

Glazed clay, galvanised steel pipes, iron plates

180 x 122 x 180 cm

Artwork ID: 1346

Andreas Sell

In the forest – # 2, 2024

Glazed clay, galvanised steel pipe, bike holder

72 x 72 x 54 cm

Artwork ID: 1345

Andreas Sell

In the forest – # 3, 2024

Felt, glazed clay, galvanised steel pipes, iron plates

157 x 138 x 67 cm

Artwork ID: 1354

Andreas Sell

In the forest – # 4, 2024

Glazed clay

Various Sizes

Artwork ID: 1341

Andreas Sell

In the forest – # 4.1, 2024

Glazed clay

72 x 25 x 56 cm

Artwork ID: 1352

Andreas Sell

In the forest – # 4.2, 2024

Glazed clay

82 x 16 x 56 cm

Artwork ID: 1350

Andreas Sell

In the forest – # 4.3, 2024

Glazed clay

71 x 19 x 56 cm

Artwork ID: 1348

Andreas Sell

In the forest – # 4.4, 2024

Glazed clay

71 x 45 x 56 cm

Artwork ID: 1349

Andreas Sell

In the forest – # 4.5, 2024

Glazed clay

72 x 16 x 54 cm

Artwork ID: 1342

Andreas Sell

In the forest – # 4.6, 2024

Glazed clay

72 x 15 x 55 cm

Artwork ID: 1343

Andreas Sell

In the forest – # 5, 2024

Glazed clay

150 x 120 x 20 cm

Artwork ID: 1347

Andreas Sell

In the forest – # 6, 2024

Glazed clay, wood board

98 x 25 x 58 cm

Artwork ID: 1351

Andreas Sell

In the forest – # 7, 2024

Glazed clay, wood board

80 x 19 x 58 cm

Artwork ID: 1353

Andreas Sell

In the forest – # 8, 2024

Felt, wood stick, fired clay

236 x 16 x 180 cm

Artwork ID: 1344

Andreas Sell

Guideline to eat a slice of toast #1, 2013

Fired clay and wood

89,5 x 45 x 13 cm

Artwork ID: 1366

Andreas Sell

Guideline to eat a slice of toast #2, 2013

Fired clay and wood

29,5 x 26,5 x 81,5 cm

Artwork ID: 1368

Andreas Sell

Guideline to eat a slice of toast #3, 2013

Fired clay and wood

37 x 30 x 29 cm

Artwork ID: 1367

Andreas Sell

Guideline to eat a slice of toast #4, 2013

Fired clay and wood

47 x 36 x 38,5 cm

Artwork ID: 1364

Andreas Sell

Guideline to eat a slice of toast #5, 2013

Fired clay and wood

35 x 35 x 35,5 cm

Artwork ID: 1365

Andreas Sell

Guideline to eat a slice of toast #6, 2013

Fired clay and wood

37 x 26 x 23 cm

Artwork ID: 1363

Andreas Sell

Guideline to eat a slice of toast #7, 2013

Fired clay and wood

42,5 x 23 x 35,5 cm

Artwork ID: 1362

Andreas Sell

Guideline to eat a slice of toast #8, 2013

Fired clay and wood

20,5 x 24 x 29,5 cm

Artwork ID: 1361

Andreas Sell

Guideline to eat a slice of toast #9, 2013

Fired clay and wood

23 x 14 x 20,5 cm

Artwork ID: 1359

Andreas Sell

Guideline to eat a slice of toast #10, 2013

Fired clay and wood

27,5 x 23 x 19 cm

Artwork ID: 1360

Andreas Sell

Guideline to eat a slice of toast #13, 2013

Fired clay and wood

21,5 x 23 x 8,5 cm

Artwork ID: 1357

Andreas Sell

Guideline to eat a slice of toast #14, 2013

Fired clay and wood

40 x 8 x 7 cm

Artwork ID: 1358

Andreas Sell

Guideline to eat a slice of toast #15, 2013

Fired clay and wood

47 x 47 x 11 cm

Artwork ID: 1356

Andreas Sell

Guideline to eat a slice of toast #16, 2013

Fired clay and wood

75 x 44,5 x 50,5 cm

Artwork ID: 1355

Andreas Sell

In recent years, Andreas Sell’s work has focused on artistic group work and the creation of space for group work. Since 2020, he has been running the artist residency Hermitage Sykaminea (HS) on the island of Lesvos in Greece. As part of the HS, he has organised a number of collective projects. These include the Hermitage Sykaminea – Gathering in 2022 at the AiR Onassis and the Ergo Collective in Athens. With the HS programme, Sell is building a network of creative workers and new local and international projects with a focus on ecology and social participation on the island of Lesvos.

His practice spans artist books—published with Bom Dia Books, Dolce Publishing, and independently—and installations exhibited at institutions including Platform China Contemporary Art Institute, Karlin Studios, Haus der Kunst, and Brooklyn Lyceum. He has been awarded scholarships from DAAD, Stiftung Kunstfonds Bonn, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, and the Berlin Senate. Sell has participated in residencies such as A.I.R. Futura Prague and USF Verftet Bergen. He studied at Kunsthochschule Berlin Weißensee and completed an MFA at Pratt Institute.

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