Claudia Weber's work presented at Momenta began with a photograph that the artist took at a construction site. The photograph, optically stark and ostensibly formal, records the transformation that took place when a classical balustrade received an unceremonious backdrop of a sheet of particle-board. Riffing off of this image, the artist re-contextualizes two other cultural forms from vastly different sources: a pre-fabricated bookcase and a heavily reproduced painting by the German Romantic Caspar David Friedrich. The painting, bookcase, and balustrade could easily recede from our notice, ignored as transparent, pre-determined backdrop in a global culture. But, instead, the artist uses a series of formal and metaphorical interventions

to make them visible. Using simple materials like Styrofoam, aluminum foil, wood, and wire, Weber undoes the purpose of these objects as determined by (and for) corporate institutions. The resultant installations shift the balance of power, supplying multiple viewpoints and divergent perspectives.

Claudia Weber attended the University of Fine and Applied Arts, Offenbach, Germany and Art School Siegel, Frankfurt, Germany. Her work has been exhibited in Vienna, Paris, Amsterdam and throughout Germany. She recently attended the Triangle Arts residency program in New York. The show at Momenta was supported by the Senate Administration for Science, Research and Culture, Berlin.