Ingo Gerken

[poliphilo]

Yesterday's Tuesday talk at the Whitworth was given by the Berlin artist, Ingo Gerken, who has an exhibition opening at the Castlefield Gallery later this week. He gesticulated broadly, swallowed the ends of his sentences and showed us pictures of  witty minimalist sculptures made from everyday stuff like toilet rolls and walking sticks, photographs of urban landscapes into which twentieth century artworks had been cunningly inserted- ie a Mondrian abstract pretending to be an office block- and pictures of  a sculpture park in Essen where he'd fitted out all the permanent exhibits with specially-crafted scents. When an questioner opined that she found his work "playful" he agreed, then added with a smile, "But I take it seriously."