German sculptor Christiane Löhr opens your eyes to the things in the natural world you would otherwise overlook in her exhibition at Haus am Waldsee, which runs until 05.09.2021. Collecting inconspicuous weeds from the roadside, Löhr transforms them into graceful sculptures and spatial installations that you approach with caution and wonder. The precise, architectural plant formations that result are not contrived. On the contrary: Löhr allows herself to be guided in her form-finding by the organic nature of the flora. Löhr often works without sketches during her experimentation, following instead the natural bends of blades of grass. In the 1990s the artist began working with animal hair taken from the tail of her own horse, and today horsehair remains an important source material. For her first institutional solo exhibition in Berlin, she has incorporated grasses from the magnificent garden at Haus am Waldsee into new works.

Running until autumn, the exhibition immerses you in a fairytale cosmos: delicate plant stems form fragile domes, seeds tower into miniature mountains, and cushions of dandelions appear to want to float away at the lightest touch. Using ink that spreads out rhizome-like on the paper, Löhr continues her botanical movements into two-dimensional forms. Her quiet arrangements never force themselves on you and yet – despite their often small format – assert space for themselves. With roots in the arte povera, minimal and land art movements, Löhr creates dreamlike parallel worlds that combine the romantic image of a pastoral utopia with geometric clarity.

Text: Laura Storfner / Credit: Exhibition view of Christiane Löhr – Organising the Wild, Haus am Waldsee, 2021 / Photos: Roman März

Haus am Waldsee, Argentinische Allee 30, 14163 Berlin–Zehlendorf; map
Christiane Löhr – Organising the Wild, until 05.09.2021, Tue–Sun 11–18h
@hausamwaldsee