spray guns & suspended fabric: step inside katharina grosse's otherworldly color canvas

in sydney, german artist katharina grosse is giving visitors to carriageworks arts center the possibility to step inside a painting. working on a monumental scale, grosse has envisioned ‘the horse trotted another couple of metres, then it stopped’ to respond to the industrial architecture of the heritage building it inhabits. the site is enveloped in more than 8,000 square meters of suspended fabric, which has been draped, knotted and hung across the architectural elements of the space. using a spray gun and a palette of raw color, grosse created a multilayered painting across the folds of the fabric, resulting in an otherworldly and immersive landscape.

photo by zan wimberley (also main image) 
all images courtesy the artist and gagosian © katharina grosse and VG bild-kunst, bonn 2017

yielding a total transformation of carriageworks historic structure, the installation challenges the conventions of painting — a theme prevalent throughout grosse’s artistic oeuvre. the artist first introduced the idea of voluminous fabric into her painting back in 2014, and has developed the technique since. ‘I was fascinated by the thought of folding space,’ grosse described. ‘I was interested in taking this vast surface and shrinking it by folding or, actually, hiding the entirety of what’s there. I understand a painting as something that, as we view it, travels through us and realigns our connections with the world.’ in sydney, dramatic drapes and folds surround visitors in a saturated scenography of spray painted shapes and lines.

photo by zan wimberley

‘the horse trottted another couple of metres, then it stopped’ is presented free to the public from now through april 8, 2018 as part of sydney festival 2018, and marks the third in the schwartz carriageworks series of major international visual arts projects.

photo by steven seiwert, courtesy of the golden mean

photo by steven seiwert, courtesy of the golden mean

photo by steven seiwert, courtesy of the golden mean

photo by steven seiwert, courtesy of the golden mean

photo by steven seiwert, courtesy of the golden mean

photo by steven seiwert, courtesy of the golden mean

photo by steven seiwert, courtesy of the golden mean

photo by steven seiwert, courtesy of the golden mean

photo by steven seiwert, courtesy of the golden mean

photo by steven seiwert, courtesy of the golden mean

photo by zan wimberley