Isolde Loock

*HENRY LAMPE* Who is Henry, Volumes 1 and 2, 2020, Author: Isolde Loock, Publisher: Anne Thurmann-Jajes, Centre for Artists' Publications at the Weserburg -Museum of Modern Art, Published by →VfmK Verlag für moderne Kunst GmbH

HENRY LAMPE Who is Henry, Volumes 1 and 2, 2020, Author: Isolde Loock,
Publisher: Anne Thurmann-Jajes, Centre for Artists’ Publications at the Weserburg -Museum of Modern Art,
Published by →VfmK Verlag für moderne Kunst GmbH
With contributions by: Achim Bertenburg, Claudia Cristoffel, Craig Havens, Isolde Loock, M. O. Rüdiger, Anne Thurmann-Jajes, Sandy Volz, Doris Weinberger, Sabine Wewer

With contributions by: Achim Bertenburg, Claudia Cristoffel, Craig Havens, Isolde Loock, M. O. Rüdiger, Anne Thurmann-Jajes, Sandy Volz, Doris Weinberger, Sabine Wewer
Interview: Wolfgang Ullrich with Isolde Loock Design: Marion Kliesch Details: Cloth hardcover, 2 volumes, 164 + 160 pages, 23.5 x 16.9 cm

Interview: Wolfgang Ullrich with Isolde Loock Design: Marion Kliesch Details: Cloth hardcover, 2 volumes, 164 + 160 pages, 23.5 x 16.9 cm
Isolde Loock declares her deceased friend's flat an ‘objet trouvé’, leaving everything in its original state. She invites seven artists to each live there for a while to get a picture of him. The result is HENRY, the portrait of a stranger. In LAMPE, her portrait of a friend, she uses the photos and valuations of a sworn auctioneer of the flat's inventory. She juxtaposes this mercantile view with personal notes and diary entries of the deceased as an imagined self-portrait.

Isolde Loock declares her deceased friend’s flat an ‘objet trouvé’, leaving everything in its original state. She invites seven artists to each live there for a while to get a picture of him. The result is HENRY, the portrait of a stranger. In LAMPE, her portrait of a friend, she uses the photos and valuations of a sworn auctioneer of the flat’s inventory. She juxtaposes this mercantile view with personal notes and diary entries of the deceased as an imagined self-portrait.
*b.o.r.n. -bee or right now-* 2011 und 2012

b.o.r.n. -bee or right now- 2011 und 2012
Villa Aurora, Los Angeles, USA Performance and Leftover catalogue, Photo: Marie-Luise Korn

Villa Aurora, Los Angeles, USA Performance and Leftover catalogue,
Photo: Marie-Luise Korn
Isolde Loock organises a spring ritual at the Villa Aurora fountain, called b.o.r.n., which refers to the global significance of the element of water, especially for a city like Los Angeles, which is completely dependent on a complex irrigation system. The artist, assisted by two children and guests, sinks 100 golden balls - whose material embodies perfection and appearance, greed and wealth, but also symbolises Los Angeles and the sun in a significant way - into the fountain filled with water.

Isolde Loock organises a spring ritual at the Villa Aurora fountain, called b.o.r.n., which refers to the global significance of the element of water, especially for a city like Los Angeles, which is completely dependent on a complex irrigation system. The artist, assisted by two children and guests, sinks 100 golden balls - whose material embodies perfection and appearance, greed and wealth, but also symbolises Los Angeles and the sun in a significant way - into the fountain filled with water.
After the spring ritual was over, the fountain dried out over the course of the summer and the balls were left lying around. Composer Michael Maierhof then used the balls and their sound as the inspiration for a video. Photographer Craig Havens from Los Angeles sent the artist photos of the ageing process: the baubles no longer sparkle and many have disappeared somewhere as souvenirs. Photo: Michael Maierhof, Craig Havens

After the spring ritual was over, the fountain dried out over the course of the summer and the balls were left lying around. Composer Michael Maierhof then used the balls and their sound as the inspiration for a video. Photographer Craig Havens from Los Angeles sent the artist photos of the ageing process: the baubles no longer sparkle and many have disappeared somewhere as souvenirs.
Photo: Michael Maierhof, Craig Havens
*EXPLODING BEAUTY* 2007 Kyoto Art Center, KAC, Kyoto Installation (audio, object) Catalogue Nothingness and laughter: Isolde Loock's EXPLODING BEAUTY and the intercultural dynamics of living art

EXPLODING BEAUTY 2007
Kyoto Art Center, KAC, Kyoto Installation (audio, object) Catalogue
Nothingness and laughter: Isolde Loock’s EXPLODING BEAUTY and the intercultural dynamics of living art
There is no doubt that Japanese and European art forms have converged in the meantime. Isolde Loock's EXPLODING BEAUTY realises their mutual overlapping even more radically. She intensifies the disappearance of the representation - the supposed viewers, who step into the circle of light as the supposed scene of the representation, become the illuminated object themselves. But they also become the subject: for if anything, they themselves create what can be seen as the beginning of artistic life or vibrant art. And further: Loock forces the visitors, who are transformed from viewers into creators, into a confrontation with laughter. According to Helmuth Plessner, laughter is a crisis reaction of the body when our mental abilities are overtaxed. We have to reinvent ourselves to a certain extent. It is the task of all art and the achievement of Isolde Loock to guide and motivate us to do so. Prof Dr K. Ludwig Pfeiffer

There is no doubt that Japanese and European art forms have converged in the meantime. Isolde Loock’s EXPLODING BEAUTY realises their mutual overlapping even more radically. She intensifies the disappearance of the representation - the supposed viewers, who step into the circle of light as the supposed scene of the representation, become the illuminated object themselves. But they also become the subject: for if anything, they themselves create what can be seen as the beginning of artistic life or vibrant art. And further: Loock forces the visitors, who are transformed from viewers into creators, into a confrontation with laughter. According to Helmuth Plessner, laughter is a crisis reaction of the body when our mental abilities are overtaxed. We have to reinvent ourselves to a certain extent. It is the task of all art and the achievement of Isolde Loock to guide and motivate us to do so.
Prof Dr K. Ludwig Pfeiffer
*EXPLODING BEAUTY* 2008 Video for EXPLODING BEAUTY, Kyoto Art Center, KAC, Kyoto DVD/ colour/ sound Length: 12:32 Editing: Wolfgang Wortmann Video still, 2008

EXPLODING BEAUTY 2008
Video for EXPLODING BEAUTY, Kyoto Art Center, KAC, Kyoto
DVD/ colour/ sound Length: 12:32 Editing: Wolfgang Wortmann
Video still, 2008
Video still, 2008 The sun goddess Amaterasu, the patron goddess of Japan, once ruled over the high heavens and her brother Susanoo over the sea. In his unrestrained behaviour, Susanoo offended his sister so much that Amaterasu withdrew into a cave and abandoned the world to darkness. The countless deities now gathered at the entrance to the cave and pondered how they could lure the sun goddess out. Only the indecent dance of one deity and the laughter it caused among those present aroused the sun goddess's curiosity and brought light back to the world. Text excerpt from the video

Video still, 2008
The sun goddess Amaterasu, the patron goddess of Japan, once ruled over the high heavens and her brother Susanoo over the sea. In his unrestrained behaviour, Susanoo offended his sister so much that Amaterasu withdrew into a cave and abandoned the world to darkness. The countless deities now gathered at the entrance to the cave and pondered how they could lure the sun goddess out. Only the indecent dance of one deity and the laughter it caused among those present aroused the sun goddess’s curiosity and brought light back to the world. Text excerpt from the video
*HOLY*, mirror installation, 2002 Goethe Institute, New York, USA Installation (video, audio, object)

HOLY, mirror installation, 2002
Goethe Institute, New York, USA Installation (video, audio, object)
*THE PINK PRAYER*, 2002 For the exhibition at the Goethe-Institut New York, Isolde Loock traces the original religious meaning of the term icon: THE PINK PRAYER (after Man Ray's back nude The Prayer) and THE BLUE ANGEL (after a portrait of Marlene Dietrich) are the names of the digitally processed large photographs, which are distorted beyond recognition. The artist thus examines two universally recognised icons of modernism. A patron saint's portrait of SACRED MARIA MAGDALENA (Marlene) and the sentence HOLY handwritten on the large mirror in the entrance area set the mood for the theme.

THE PINK PRAYER, 2002
For the exhibition at the Goethe-Institut New York, Isolde Loock traces the original religious meaning of the term icon: THE PINK PRAYER (after Man Ray’s back nude The Prayer) and THE BLUE ANGEL (after a portrait of Marlene Dietrich) are the names of the digitally processed large photographs, which are distorted beyond recognition. The artist thus examines two universally recognised icons of modernism. A patron saint’s portrait of SACRED MARIA MAGDALENA (Marlene) and the sentence HOLY handwritten on the large mirror in the entrance area set the mood for the theme.
*THE BLUE ANGEL*, 2002

THE BLUE ANGEL, 2002
Videostill: *HOLLY- The First Human Clone*, 2002

Videostill: HOLLY- The First Human Clone, 2002
From the cycle *‘Identities’ Hermann + Jutta* 1994 Deutscher Bundestag, Berlin Acquired in 2000 in the course of a competition for the Otto-Wels-Haus, Unter den Linden 50 Eight-part, PE paper, Tetenal, b./w. Catalogue and edition

From the cycle ‘Identities’ Hermann + Jutta 1994
Deutscher Bundestag, Berlin Acquired in 2000 in the course of a competition for the Otto-Wels-Haus, Unter den Linden 50 Eight-part, PE paper, Tetenal, b./w. Catalogue and edition
From the cycle *‘Identities’ Hermann + Jutta* 1994

From the cycle ‘Identities’ Hermann + Jutta 1994
*uffm kreuz: versäume nie den aufstieg*, 2011 Görlitz, Weberstrasse/ Ecke Handwerk The installation was created as part of a campaign for the Day of the Monument in a listed building in Görtlitz. Photography: BANG BANG, 2011

uffm kreuz: versäume nie den aufstieg, 2011
Görlitz, Weberstrasse/ Ecke Handwerk
The installation was created as part of a campaign for the Day of the Monument in a listed building in Görtlitz.
Photography: BANG BANG, 2011
Under the title *uffm kreuz: versäume nie den aufstieg*, Isolde Loock has developed a poetic German-Polish field of communication for her birthplace of Görlitz, which runs through all levels of Leistner's nested hall house on the corner of Weberstrasse and Handwerk. Photography: BANG BANG, 2011

Under the title uffm kreuz: versäume nie den aufstieg, Isolde Loock has developed a poetic German-Polish field of communication for her birthplace of Görlitz, which runs through all levels of Leistner’s nested hall house on the corner of Weberstrasse and Handwerk.
Photography: BANG BANG, 2011
*uffm kreuz: versäume nie den aufstieg,* 2011 Görlitz, Weberstrasse/ Ecke Handwerk Installation Photografie: BANG BANG, 2011

uffm kreuz: versäume nie den aufstieg, 2011
Görlitz, Weberstrasse/ Ecke Handwerk
Installation
Photografie: BANG BANG, 2011
*Flying Beans*, 2006-2022 Sculpture in public space Metal, plastic Published in THE CREATIVE CITY- Vision and Execution, edited by James E. Doyle and Biljana Mickov, Gower 2015. The work Flying Beans by the artist Isolde Loock was created in 2006 as one of the first foreign-language street signs in Germany for the art project in public space Plattform BOHNENSTRASSE, Bremen, a project by the artist Jürgen Amthor.

Flying Beans, 2006-2022
Sculpture in public space Metal, plastic Published in THE CREATIVE CITY- Vision and Execution, edited by James E. Doyle and Biljana Mickov, Gower 2015.
The work Flying Beans by the artist Isolde Loock was created in 2006 as one of the first foreign-language street signs in Germany for the art project in public space Plattform BOHNENSTRASSE, Bremen, a project by the artist Jürgen Amthor.
New edition Dimensions: 1 post 283 cm high/ 7 cm diameter 5 signs 50-90 cm long. Isolde Loock plays with the word ‘Bohnenstraße’ by translating it into four languages (Turkish, English, Spanish, Chinese). In this way, she thematises the coexistence of different cultures in the city.

New edition
Dimensions: 1 post 283 cm high/ 7 cm diameter
5 signs 50-90 cm long.
Isolde Loock plays with the word ‘Bohnenstraße’ by translating it into four languages (Turkish, English, Spanish, Chinese). In this way, she thematises the coexistence of different cultures in the city.
New edition Dimensions: 1 post 283 cm high/ 7 cm diameter 5 signs 50-90 cm long. Photos: H. Hillebrecht, Bernd Loock In 2022, the original version of Flying Beans was donated to the Focke Museum (Bremen State Museum of Art and Cultural History) by the artist Isolde Loock.

New edition
Dimensions: 1 post 283 cm high/ 7 cm diameter
5 signs 50-90 cm long.
Photos: H. Hillebrecht, Bernd Loock
In 2022, the original version of Flying Beans was donated to the Focke Museum (Bremen State Museum of Art and Cultural History) by the artist Isolde Loock.
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