2011 Artist Nominee Gallery

Tine Kindermann Work | Artist Statement & CV | Return to Artist List

You must be logged in to advance Nominee. You must be a selection to view advance submissions.

Artist Statement
I am fascinated by miniature, specifically the way it can
juxtapose kitsch and horror, recalling childhood imagery and
childhood fears, little murders in the dollhouse. I build peep
hole installations and dioramas from old crates and drawers, telling stories without words in environments created from found objects and garbage, with tiny figurines that I sculpt. Born and raised in (West) Germany, my work reflects traditions going back to the time when traveling storytellers would capture their audiences in the marketplace with “Guckkästen” - peep hole installations - that promised a glimpse into faraway lands, long before printed media or moving images were available. My guckkästen draw the viewer in with their promise of a small perfect world, which is then replaced with the unexpected horror of a cut off head, the dangerous woods of German fairy tales, a family facing an uncertain (or worse, certain) fate, a roof destroyed by an earthquake or bombing.

Similarly, my reinterpretation of the little tchotchkes known as “Hummel” figurines, which were first introduced at a German trade fair in the 1930s to immediate international success, confronts the assumed safety of a simplistic idyllic world view with the reality of history, illustrating the “banality of evil” while examining the connection between fascism and the aesthetic of kitsch. My figurines may look like the real thing, but they wear swastikas or the yellow star.
The real Hummel figurines were not allowed to sell in Germany under the Third Reich because they were not considered heroic enough. However, they were exported into the rest of the world, promoting a view of German life and culture that was in stark contrast to what was going on in reality. To this day the official Hummel catalogue refers to that period in German history as “the tumults of the time”.

CV
TINE KINDERMANN
www.tinekindermann.com

Born in West Berlin, Germany
Lives and works in New York City

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS:

Contemporary Puppetry:The Language Inside, The Mikhail Zakin Gallery, Bergen County, NJ

Rated: Grimm, NY Studio Gallery, New York

GROUP EXHIBITIONS:

2010

Temporary Toy Theater Museum, Great Small Works, St Ann’s Warehouse, Brooklyn, New York

4heads Collective Benefit Preview for The Governors Island Art Fair 2010, New York Design Center, New York

A Communist Gala, Cuchifritos, New York

2009

Second Annual Governors Island Art Fair, curated by 4heads Collective, New York

My Heroes, Jack The Pelican, New York

Tzelem:Likeness and Presence in Jewish Art, Stanton Street Synagogue, New York

2008

First Annual Governors Island Art Fair, curated by 4heads Collective, New York

Mad Honour Helga, Galerie Kurt im Hirsch, Berlin, Germany

Temporary Toy Theater Museum, Great Small Works, St Ann’s Warehouse, Brooklyn, New York

Fade Out, Black In, curated by Zeina Assaf, NY Studio Gallery, New York

Small Works Show, New York University, New York

LES Current, curated by Zeina Assaf, Office of the Manhattan Borough President, New York

2007

Made in the U.S.A. curated by David Gibson, Educational Alliance, New York

L.E.S Arts Festival, Theatre of the New City, New York

2006

Words and Vibrations, Agni Zotis Gallery, New York

Confluence, Musee de Monoian, Pittsburgh PA

Group Show, Zitogallery, New York

2005

Method Becomes Practice, Office of the Manhattan Borough President, New York

Toy Theater Museum, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Brooklyn

2003

Reflections of the Unconscious, Center for Modern Psychoanalytic Studies, New York

Toy Theater Museum, HereArt Gallery, New York

2002

The Story Thus Far, Dixon Place, New York

Fractured Fairy Tales, Metaphor Contemporary Art, Brooklyn, New York

“The Darling Roland (A Grimm Tale)”, inside box view, Mixed Media, 12"x16"x19”, 2010