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The exhibition title Hors du Lit holds a double meaning. On the one hand it points to the geological context of the rock strata, thus the layers in which the stone is embedded before it is extracted and hence the natural aspects of this matter. On the other hand it means in a more common way „out of the bed“ which can be read in a psychological way, as being pushed out of a comfortable surrounding. Last but not least it also points to the prominent use of foam in the works.

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The individual signature in the artists work process is their focus on the matter stone and the diverse methods of extracting the stone from the quarry. In earlier works the artists were richly documenting various aspects of this extraction process and its fundamental principles.

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This exhibition shows several new departures, including works as Hors du Lit, which also gave this exhibition its name, the Délitages and the Bedded- Series. Central to these new series is the question of the valuation that is given to different materials and how the processing, transformation and adaptation of natural matters by humans changes the perception and valuation of those materials. To answer these questions Schälling | Enderle contrast various  materials used in everyday life with stones they extracted and refined in long drawn processes.

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By arranging the different materials in layers and regrouping the various volumes they achieve finely balanced compositions of the sculptures. Rather common and ephimere materials like the foam block become dominant, while the finely worked stone plate appears fragile and transient (Hors du Lit). In the work Balance the materials seem to carry each other. Interestingly the symetrical Installation does not have a support structure to fix the roughly worked materials together- ergo the threat of instability always looms for this finely tuned balance.

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Although all of their objects display a direct connotation to architectural questions, they find their strongest expression in the Délitages and Bedded Series. With the Délitages material related observations come to the fore;  in the Bedded Series the research is predominantely about architectural volumes, while the topic of transformation of materials and their reattribution also stays important in these two series.

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With Re-Couché we show one of older works of Doris Schälling in the Box. The relief seen on the surface of the work is actually the unadulterated surface after the extraction of the stone from the quarry. In essence you are looking at the sea floor from some hundred of thousands, maybe even millions of years ago, conserved in a rock formation. The imprint and its relief like structure is accentuated by the finely carved and polished sides and footing, which gives a certain lightness to the almost 900 kg sculpture.

 

Sofie Verbrugghen & Olaf Pradhan, September 2016