Kate Newby – I'M ASKING

The New Zealand artist Kate Newby (b. 1979) developed a site-specific installation for Museum Folkwang. She selected the transitional area between the museum’s original building, opened in 1960, and the extension completed in 2010. Despite their different periods of construction, both buildings share the formal language of modernist architecture, characterised by clean lines, rectangular courtyards, and expansive glass façades. Glass and concrete, two defining materials of modernism, form the starting point for Newby’s work. In her hands, however, they become fragile, responsive materials that bear the traces of their making. On two glass-pane doors facing the courtyard, the artist has fused vertical hand-drawn lines and numerous fingerprints into the surface. The three-dimensional texture of the glass work Good Sound reacts to light and movement, shifting in appearance throughout the day in response to changing conditions and the viewer’s perspective. The linear forms of the glass installation continue outdoors in the concrete work I’m Asking, situated on the lawn of the museum courtyard. Pale, textured concrete lines extend across the space before disappearing behind two small mo

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