Exhibition at NAI Rotterdam (NEST in Gallery 3): 05 july 2008 - 31 august 2008

NEST is a one-person gallery measuring 15 square metres. Once every six weeks, a generally young artist, architect or designer presents a new exhibition of independent work. Starting on July 5, 2008, the artist Christine Saalfeld (1968) will be showing the installation 'Circulation Machine', a critical construction on technology and modernism.

The artist Christine Saalfeld (1968) was born in Germany. Now, after a period of a nomadic lifestyle, lives and works in Rotterdam. She makes both graphics and three-dimensional objects. Architectural structures, models, city features and dynamic machinery are recurrent themes in her work.

Circulation Machine
Saalfeld has made the installation 'Circulation Machine' specially for NEST. It is about the eternal cycle of nascence and evanescence, of birth and decay – a principle that in Saalfeld’s view highly relevant in today’s humanly constructed world. Her idea for this installation came about after she visited the 'Olympic Fire' exhibition which is currently on show in the NAI. As Saalfeld explains, “The exhibition shows the top performances of athletes and architects. Through the obvious functionlessness of my constructions, I try to place a question mark against the optimism of technology and modernism.”

Non-Functional
Despite their sober, technical appearance, Saalfed’s inventions lack any visible function. Her objects resemble architectural structures or pragmatic devices, but they are neither of these. They are part of a fictive world. “The way I develop my objects is like a designer elaborating sketches and ideas. I respond intuitively to the physical qualities of the material, and my reaction may prompt me to modify the object to a greater or lesser extent.”

http://www.christinesaalfeld.net/