German

Alice Creischer, born in Gerolstein in 1960, studied Philosophy, German literature and Visual Arts in Düsseldorf. As one of the key figures of German political art movements in the Nineties, Creischer contributed to a great amount of collective projects, publications, and exhibitions. Her artistic and theoretic agenda within institutional and economical critique has evolved over 20 years, more recently focusing on the early history of capitalism and globalization. As co-curator of such paradigmatic exhibitions like Messe 2ok (1995), ExArgentina (2004) and The Potosi Principle (2010), Creischer has developed a specific curatorial practice that correlates with her work as an artist and theorist, including her extensive practice in archive research. As author Creischer has contributed to many publications, magazines and fanzines.

Apparatus for the Osmotic Compensation of the Pressure of Wealth during the Contemplation of Poverty 

Apparatus for the Osmotic Compensation of the Pressure of Wealth during the Contemplation of Poverty (2005) by Alice Creischer is principally made from a series of metal tripods each supporting a rosette. This idea of a mechanical apparatus is contrasted by the low tech fabrication of the piece, which, like a complex and extended craft object, has been produced using a number of hand processes — sketching, paper cuts, photographic collage, image transfer, stitching, beading and appliqué. While the work is cryptic, the artist has avoided mystification or ambiguity by providing a key to its contents in the form of a ledger pasted on the wall. 

The work began when Creischer encountered a beggar in India, with the artist tracing the connection between herself and the beggar in terms of how they had arrived at their respective positions. The piece goes back to the colonial period, a time which saw the enormous transfer of wealth from the colonies to the European metropolis and what the artist calls ‘the production of the third world’. It moves forward in time to include policies of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, the issue of debt, and a contemporary economic system that continues to sustain and exacerbate income disparities between nations as well as within them. Alice Creischer’s work, exploring the artist’s concern with uneven power relations that are rooted in our Imperialist pasts and routed through the production and consumption of textiles, most notably cotton.