Iteration of a stick, 2018

Antje Majewski’s three paintings follow permutations of an object: the stick. The first painting, Wood, shows a pile of cut branches that might serve as fences or garden structures. In The Bamboo Broom the stick turned into a broom. The woman that drags it behind her performs humble but essential work, creating an order that does not last; new leaves will fall to the ground tomorrow. Once her broom has served its purpose, it can decompose as well. Plastic Brooms shows the same form made from a different, human-made material. They speak of all the hard work that goes unnoticed. They are a commodity and will become trash someday. But they, too, can tell us many things.

As Issa Samb said, “Your object, wherever this object comes from in China, brings all of China with it. Even if it is the tiniest of objects, it carries all of China within it. So, you hold in your hands all the possible and imaginable means for getting to know China and beyond. (…) Objects speak their own language. The wind speaks. It speaks its own language. Birds speak. They speak their own language. There you are.”