Dialogue between colour and light
The exhibition ‘Light Leaf and Fire Form’ is a first encounter between Ferose’s iron sculptures and Stephane Zwahlen’s colour studies and ‘word works’. The Visual Arts Section at the Goetheanum has brought the two polar approaches together in a way that makes tangible what lives in the in-between in the works of both artists.
The artist Ferose works with iron. When welded, the tough material shows its tender sides. The heat softens it and suddenly it reveals all the colours of the spectrum. Stephane Zwahlen also works with colours, but on paper and canvas. “Both artists have in common that they are listening, to the sound of colour and light spaces, the language of nature and light forces, the echo of deep layers of consciousness,” says Christiane Haid, head of the Visual Arts Section. The exhibition ‘Light Leaf and Fire Form’ is curated by Barbara Schnetzler.
After training as a landscape gardener, Ferose studied painting, graphics and sculpture at Freie Kunststudienstätte Ottersberg, an art college near Bremen, Germany. She was fascinated with iron from an early age. First encounters with sheet metal in a car workshop led her to autogenous welding which she learned from the iron sculptor Freddy Madörin in Basel, Switzerland. Today she creates freestanding sculptures and large relief-like wall art. From thin iron wire she creates works that are sometimes fragile and delicate and sometimes massive and powerful.
In the exhibition, these strong iron structures can enter into a dialogue with Stephane Zwahlen’s transparent and vibrantly colourful paintings. He studied sculpture, photography and typography at Kunstgewerbeschule [arts and crafts college] Basel in Switzerland and used to be assistant stage designer at Theater Basel. He also studied painting with Beppe Assenza in Dornach, Switzerland.
Stephane Zwahlen is interested in what he calls “the silence of the afterimage”. As he listens to the resonance of the visible phenomena, he creates sequences that make different layers of reality of nature and of the human being visible. He complements some of his colour creations with word works.
English by Margot M. Saar
Exhibition Light Leaf and Fire Form. Sculptures and paintings by Ferose and Stephane Zwahlen, until 21 January 2024, daily from 9 am to 8 pm (extended opening hours during events at the Goetheanum), Art Gallery, Goetheanum
Web (german) Ferose
Portrait (german) Stephane Zwahlen
Cover image Stephane Zwahlen: Nous