Tillmann Terbuyken

For Tillmann Terbuyken's (*1978, Munich) works are initially objects. They resist being defined by any function or openly symbolic reference: Even though their forms are reminders of functionalist aesthetics, of modernist architctures and avant-garde abstractions, they do not represent any form of use value or hint towards a yet unreached utopian abstraction. They carry no representational value. Only when looking at the sculpture's formal aspects can one discern references. References, it seems, towards a culture of materiality, of a referential grid in which the relation of form and content is substitute by that of form and material. Terbuyken's materials seem to formulate themselves through their shapes. They are the work's content. Basic forms such as circles, triangles or rectangles dominate his production. Yet these forms are not constructed in a geometrically precise way; they always deviate from the basic shape to such a degree that, upon first sight, they seem to be both: the shapes and their deviations. Their 'damaged' features are that what makes them bodily - individualises them, turns them into singular identities - 'originals', so to say. In that their material, its damaged state becomes the content of Terbuyken's work. They narrate a material experience of imperfection in which what looks from afar as minimalist forms or modernist architectural sites is, when coming closer are rendered as an account of conscious imperfection.

Tillmann Terbuyken, "O.T. (love-reason)", 2009, acrylic on canvas, 70 x 100;
Tillmann Terbuyken, "O.T.", 2009, acrylic on canvas, wooden slats, 200 x 70 x 90;
Tillmann Terbuyken, "O.T. (unfinished)", 2009, acrylic on canvas, 130 x 80;
Tillmann Terbuyken, "O.T. (Trikolore)", 2009, acrylic on canvas, 107 x 171;
Tillmann Terbuyken, "O.T. (Teil eines Zylinders)", 2009, acrylic on canvas, wooden slats, ca. 80 x 80 x 80
(from left to right)

Curriculum vitae

Solo Exhibitions (Selection)

Group Exhibitions

Projects

Awards and Scholarships

Publications