#tobikeck

[tobikeck]

Rüdiger (based on a true story)

2023; instagram-manipulated photograph, silver pen, grave, flowers

This is the grave of Rüdiger. I buried his imaginary body for the group show 'Von Pionierpflanzen und Flâneusen', developed by Julia Kiehlmann. The exhibition surrounded the topic of abandoned and therefore vacant areas within the Eastside of Leipzig, highlighting the socio-political, ecological and also emotional meaning of these urban wastelands for their human visitors. I placed the grave on a nice spot next to a little bush, on a wide so-called 'Brache' underneath a car traffic bridge and besides train tracks. A perfect place to bury your beloved animal friend.

Rüdiger was an experienced tomcat living on a graveyard in Leipzig West. One of his eyes was dead and his fur was always a little filthy. He looked a little grumpy but he was actually a very friendly fella who also enjoyed some company, since he used to sit directly at the gate of the boneyard, where all the people would enter. Shortly after the first socially traumatizing lock-down, due to the pandemic, in 2020, he suddenly disappeared without a trace. His body was never found and people believe that some lonely soul kidnapped him as a companion. I kind of identified with that cat, ever since i first met him when i was doing a sculpture on that graveyard. One day, for no special reason - more as a little joke - I placed my own face on his picture with that simple spot camera in the instagram story tools (unfortunately the zuckerberg deactivated that nice tool a few years ago). This cute picture of Rüdiger (including my own hand in it, petting him) finally turned into a funny kind of ego-cam mirror self portrait. And I had turned into the Cheshire Cat version of Rüdiger. Needless to say, it somehow felt like burying myself in that lovely little grave under the bridge.

fare well, Rüdiger

[nadjakurz]

Haarpune, Nachlass // The Rock @ Westbruch, Brandis, 2019  – underwater art show developed by Tobi Keck, underwater photos by Torsten Schnabel

pipette bottle, hair, nail polish, porphyry slabs, silicone, hair

[kunstnuernberg]

Leitung tot, Lisa Wölfel und Tobi Keck It’s the hot line right to death. Keck and Wölfel produced an audio-drama of the famous Füssener Totentanz and will present it to you on this nation-wide telephone hotline. Call: 0900 1001392 Twenty different people of different social classes will face this „greyish guy“ to finally reflect about memento mori. For more info see the calendar at kunstnuernberg.de #totentanz #füssen #lisawoelfel #tobikeck #contemporaryart #kunstnürnberg #calendar (presso Füssen)

[mu-th-ur]

🥾⛰️'Burial of the White Man' — An annual ascend to Kleiner Gleichberg in Thuringia, initiated by @erik_niedling , curated by @jeronium and presented by @exilegram 🏕️🐴⁣ ⁣ W/ @wlan__ @mariematusz @cassidytoner @hottarek @annawalther1 @paulotiswiesner @johannablank @tobikeck @nellibabetti @anicacare @juliuspristauz @ernest_yna @k.o.t.z @lottemeret @ronnyszillo @lucie_van_freynhagen @matyasmalac @jiajiahefei @healthy_huebscher ⁣ ⁣ #erikniedling #ingoniermann #pyramidmountain #burialofthewhiteman #kleinergleichberg #thueringen #exilegram #germany #ofluxoplatform⁣ ⁣ @ofluxoplatform (at Kleiner Gleichberg) https://www.instagram.com/p/CAX3Q3EF9Ay/?igshid=65agjxilf1hm

[diehartjungs]

THE TRAILER TO THE MOVIE (!!!)

[tobikeck]

inhale/exhale

hand carved carrot, car, underground parking lot; life sized

my contribution to the great offsite groupshow series 'POTLUCK' organized by Rhizome Parking Garage and Underground Flower for Soloshow.online and was published in early 2023.

The whole show with many great artists is available here

↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓

https://soloshow.online/potluck.html

thx to Ian Bruner and Halo <3

[tobikeck]

alrighty then

My turnip-cabbage-made handwriting on the wall for my 2022 solo exhibiton Schöngeist Zeitgeist Poltergeist. During the show, it turned from a vivid, fresh condition into this skeletal and dry veggie letters. Since it wasn’t so easy to spot the black nails when it was still rich and green, they became quite visible after decay, how they supported and held together this fragile construction.

Oct./Nov. 2022 @ Kunsthalle.Ost, Leipzig

[tobikeck]

Make a wish 🕯

aluminum tinfoil, aluminum bars, candle; 4,60 x 3,90 x 0,60 m

this floor-installation was produced as my contribution to the groupshow ‘Fasting of my Fantasies’ at ACUD Galerie in Berlin in July 2022.

The exhibition was curated by Paula Ďurinová, Gabriela Matuszewska and Alžběta Čermáková and displayed the following artists:

Bimal Fabbri, Tobi Keck, Danielle Magee, Deniz Şimşek, Tanat Teeradakorn & Joe Highton, Lena Valenzuela

[tobikeck]

Eternal harvest

2024; manipulated vegetables, ethanol, jars, chemical containers, wooden boards, stucco brackets; in-situ installation ca. 230 x 90 x 25 cm

This installation was shown in the group exhibition An' it harm none, do what thou wilt , curated by Okta Collective in February 2024 at Rosalux project space Berlin.

https://rosalux.com/

https://www.okta-collective.com/

[tobikeck]

Dis/Simulatio artis

Schöngeist Zeitgeist Poltergeist von Tobi Keck

Text von Teresa Ende

Alrighty then. Das berühmte Mantra des Film-Detektivs Ace Ventura – zur Überbrückung unangenehmer Gesprächspausen ebenso effektiv wie zu deren Beendigung – prangt als monumentaler Schriftzug aus Kohlrabi- und Blumenkohlkraut an der rechten Wand der Ausstellung Schöngeist Zeitgeist Poltergeist. Was bei dem US-Starkomiker Jim Carrey Catchphrase, Phraseologismus und paradoxer Weltkommentar ist, bekommt in der dreiteiligen Werkschau des Berliner Künstlers Tobi Keck (*1987) einen weiteren Spin. Denn obwohl die in der Handschrift des Künstlers modellierte Sentenz mit geschwärzten Stahlnägeln an der finalen Ausstellungswand befestigt ist, fungiert sie doch weniger als Schlusspunkt denn als Türöffner, der zugleich nach vorn und zurück, nach außen und innen verweist.

Augenmaske, schwarze Krähe, Teufel und Zombie. Den Auftakt der Schau bildet die Untitled überschriebene Sammlung von Dutzenden Gruselmasken, die an der linken Wand des Ausstellungsraumes angebracht sind. Tobi Keck hat die Masken – sämtlich industrielle Massenware – im Laufe des vergangenen Jahres in Discountern und Supermärkten zusammengetragen. Dabei stellt ihre Akkumulation, Multiplikation und Reihung in der Ausstellung die Wirkung des Ausgangsmaterials auf den Kopf: Aura und Grusel sind nur im Singular zu haben. Ein wandfüllendes Register von Gruselmasken dagegen erzeugt keine Angst, sondern eine grotesk-absurde Monstrosität, bei der das Als-Ob-Spiel des Verkleidens in seiner Gleichzeitigkeit von Vergnügen, Verstecken, Zeigen und Realitätsbewältigung mit der banalen Warenästhetik der trashigen Objekte kollidiert.

Formal wie inhaltlich verbunden werden Schriftzug und Maskensammlung durch die am Boden platzierten Dumbsters. Diese bestehen aus gelochten Papierbeuteln, die mit minimalistischen Siebdrucken versehen und wiederum mit Blumenkohl- und Kohlrabiblättern gefüllt sind. Zusammen mit den paarweise gestanzten Löchern ergeben die Siebdrucke auf jedem Beutel ein anderes, auf dem Kopf stehendes Emoticon. Dabei werden die allein mittels Computertastatur erzeugten Bild-Symbole, die für Gefühlsäußerungen wie Freude, Trauer oder Überraschung stehen, in die Dreidimensionalität übertragen, subjektifiziert und quasi verlebendigt.

Auch diese Arbeit basiert auf der programmatischen Verfremdung und  Umdeutung des Vorgefundenen, auf einer Gleichzeitigkeit von Verbergen und Zeigen: Die Piktogramme stehen Kopf und erscheinen doch „richtig herum“, weil das aus den Öffnungen der Beutel ragende Gemüsekraut an wild hervorquellendes Haar erinnert (und wie dieses im Laufe der Zeit seine Farbe und Struktur ändern wird). Die Beutel-Objekte selbst sind sowohl rudimentäre Masken mit Augenlöchern als auch fantastische Rüben-Köpfe – und gleichwohl nichts als bloßer Trash: Datenabfall auf einer Altpapier-Mülltüte, die mit Biomüll gefüllt ist. Mit Schöngeist Zeitgeist Poltergeist reflektiert Tobi Keck unsere Gegenwart ebenso klug, hintersinnig und humorvoll wie die eigene popkulturelle Prägung. Entertainment trifft auf Realitätsverzerrung trifft auf dissimuliertes Nichtwissen trifft auf die Ironie von Tiefstapelei und Verkürzung. Was logisch nicht einleuchtet, kann doch Wahrheit ausdrücken, und umgekehrt. Alrighty then.

© Teresa Ende, Oktober 2022

[tobikeck]

Dumbsters

:3  :’(  :/  :P  :O  D:  :?  :-)  :-[  :-s

2022; screenprints on perforated paper bags; vegetable waste; life size

In ‘Schöngeist Zeitgeist Poltergeist’, the two big wall pieces were accompanied by 10 different little guys, filled with fresh weeds of cauliflower and turnip cabbage. Every single paper bag had a well-known emoticon screenprinted on them. The usual colon (double-dot) eyes of the emoticon-faces was two holes punched into every bag, that turned them into a bag-mask that would perfectly fit over your head. Like the vegetables on the wall, the big amounts of cabbage weed in the compostal bags also went into strong decay during the 4 weeks of display and created an atmosphere of sour smell of rotting cabbage.

(*each bag was also released as an unlimited edition, folded and combined with dry pressed weeds, in black alu frame.)

[tobikeck]

Untitled (monster mask collection)

2022; monster masks; wall dimensions 4,20 x 4,10 m

Not just metaphorically speaking, the ‘alrighty then’ wall piece was facing the this whole wall of all different kinds of disguises. The collection currently holds more than 200 pieces that come from costume shops, supermarkets, low-prize-stores, etc. and therefore only from an contemporary industrial origin. In a fashion of the ready-made object, this untitled art piece itself is meant to be an accumulation of just what it is.

Shown at my latest solo show ‘Schöngeist Zeitgeist Poltergeist’ at Kunsthalle.Ost, Leipzig.

October 2022

[tobikeck]

alrighty then

turnip cabbage weed, cauliflower weed, black nails; ca. 2,40 x 3,20 x 0,1 m

This large vegetable wall writing was part of my latest solo exhibition ‘Schöngeist Zeitgeist Poltergeist’ in october 2022 at Kunsthalle.Ost, Leipzig. It is a projection of my personal handwriting, depicted with dozens of vegetable waste weed from the supermarket, which was nailed to the wall with unhidden black nails. The one-liner ‘alrighty then’ is a quoted catch phrase by Jim Carrey’s film character Ace Ventura. During the 4 weeks of exhibition, the organic material went into visible decay and turned dry, brown and mouldy. Furthermore, the exhibition space got filled with a strong odor of - fresh at first - to then rotting cabbage.

visit Kunsthalle.Ost in Leipzig, Riebeckstraße 19

[tobikeck]

Make a wish 🕯

aluminum tinfoil, aluminum bars, candle; 4,60 x 3,90 x 0,60 m

(*pictures in the background are by Bimal Fabbri)

this floor-installation was produced as my contribution to the groupshow ‘Fasting of my Fantasies’ at ACUD Galerie in Berlin in July 2022.

The exhibition was curated by Paula Ďurinová, Gabriela Matuszewska and Alžběta Čermáková and displayed the following artists:

Bimal Fabbri, Tobi Keck, Danielle Magee, Deniz Şimşek, Tanat Teeradakorn & Joe Highton, Lena Valenzuela

[tobikeck]

Vertumnus

Fresh vegetable piece for the duo-exhibtion FRIDAY THIRTEEN with Johannes Bünemann at Berlin’s Nachschlag Art Space on Friday, August 13 2021

2021; vegetables; 1 x 1 x 0,2 m

see the complete exhibition on tzvetnik here:

https://tzvetnik.online/article/friday-thirteen-private-duo-show-by-tobi-keck-johannes-bunemann-berlin

[tobikeck]

SPIRITUALIZER

solo exhibition at Sunnybrook Artcenter in September 2021

In the very special habitat of the discarded trailer which is the Sunnybrook Artcenter, I created a scenery of a messy, laboratory-like working space. On basis of liquid spirit a. k. a. pure ethanol, cabbage and roots vegetables were apparently processed into sinister ghosts in a jar. Between canisters, industrial containers, litter and rotting bodies of flora, empty-eyed faces and heads were starring from their shelfs. In dim light, the visitors were led into an abandoned place, only inhabited by the left-behind characters, preserved in their anthropomorphic afterlife.

Sunnybrook Artcenter is an offsite art space in the rural area near Leipzig, GER.

http://www.sunnybrookartcenter.com/about/

SPIRITUALIZER; 2021; spirit, vegetables, glass jars, industrial equipment, litter