Thomas Rentmeister (DE)

Thomas Rentmeister - Das beste Zimmer (2021)
concrete wire mesh, wooden furniture parts
790 x 395 x 290 cm
courtesy Ellen de Bruijne Projects, Amsterdam
photography Gert Jan van Rooij

Thomas Rentmeister (b. Reken, North Rhine-Westphalia, 1964, lives in Berlin) is known for his ‘blobs’, which he has been making since 1991. These are extraordinarily attractive, large-scale organic objects made of polyester resin in monochrome soft-brown, green and pink shades with abundant polished surfaces, which are as smooth as a mirror. The shapes of the blobs are abstract but always refer to domestic things, objects that look familiar to us, such as a bottle, a car or a human figure. The works originate with plaster moulds, which Rentmeister works on meticulously until he sees the perfect form emerging. Then the object is coated with a thin layer of polyester resin. No trace of this artisanal manufacturing process remains. The blobs are not quite light enough to float through space like shiny bubbles, although that is something the artist would love to see.

In his practice, Rentmeister also uses many recognisable forms from our consumer society and everyday objects and products. He models, pours and builds with sugar, coffee, flour, Nutella, paper tissues, baby lotion, cotton pads and complete refrigerators – in 2004, he made a nearly seven-metre-high tower of second-hand refrigerators for Lustwarande, covered from top to bottom with baby lotion – and uses these substances to make sculptures that are abstract and basic in form, in a reference to minimalism. They are objects to which the artist’s childhood memories or personal associations are attached. Everything is ultimately intended to help us experience the beauty of the everyday.

For STATIONS, Rentmeister made a mysterious work, a grid construction made of concrete wire mesh in a monumental format. A gigantic cage-like structure functioned as a container for wooden furniture parts that were incorporated within internal cells, smaller cages. The furniture was destroyed, smashed into pieces, with visible fractures and splinters. Through the large openings of the frame, you could see right through the cage construction, and from a short distance it looked like an immense drawing in space. The wooden pieces of furniture have served humans and been returned to their place of origin, the forest where they grew. Visitors might find that the cage was an involuntary reminder of the lack of freedom in their lives since the outbreak of the coronavirus. Apart from that is was evident that Rentmeister had nothing with the idea of a Sunday room.

Thomas Rentmeister – Unitled (2004)
Lustwarande ’04 – Disorientation by Beauty
photography Peter Cox