Of all four elements, only earth is tangible and malleable. As arable soil or as a molehill in a meadow, earth in its crumbling materiality is immediately visible. To show this and to honour earth as a valuable substance is at the heart of "Hommage an die Erde". The soft earthy mass of clay, on the other hand, is a material that easily takes on any form, offering itself to the shaping hand as a direct and sensual experience.
Air is an element that moves – from the slightest breeze to the most formidable gust. As wind, air is a perceptible power that is physically experienced. To be visible, however, air requires some sort of medium, such as water droplets or dust particles in the air, encasings filled with air, or smaller or larger surfaces exposed to the wind. Thus, air can only be shaped indirectly by either making it visible through a medium or by directing or influencing its flow.
Words like drops, splashes and waves describe momentary forms that water can take before it transforms again. These moments can be captured in a photograph or influenced by external conditions. But water as an element is only truly malleable in its solid state. When we say water, we mean the wet element that adapts to every form, spreads without boundaries, and is in constant flux.
Taming the wildness of fire and learning how to control and use it to serve our purposes was an invaluable cultural achievement. Fire out of control, on the other hand, is destructive. All it takes to play kindling are matches, candles and paper. And yet, even this rather harmless fire game moves along the fine line between exercised control and its control-breaking potential. The works shown here emerge and are fed by a fire kept in an unstable balance.
“Playing with fire in her harmless unspectacular way, Elisabeth Holder probes the limits of precarious control over this element. Here she is all fire and flame.” Barbara Maas
