Various & Gould: Wishes And Hopes For 2018

As we draw closer to the new year we’ve asked a very special guest every day to take a moment to reflect on 2017 and to tell us about one photograph that best captures the year for them. It’s an assortment of treats to surprise you with every day – to enjoy and contemplate as we all reflect on the year that has passed and conjure our hopes and wishes for 2018. This is our way of sharing the sweetness of the season and of saying ‘Thank You’ to each of you for inspiring us throughout the year.

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Intellectual adventurers with a penchant for public experimentation, the Berlin-based duo Various & Gould anchor their vivid-hued dada-pop hybrids in study and observation – and a willingness to actively question conventional assumptions. Originally predicated on the language of poster graphics, in periodic forays in public space, V&G become performers, clue-givers, even academic re-skinners of existing sculpture when their new idea takes fullness. Today we learn how their own natural observational practice and innate creative curiosity about art on the streets leads them to new discoveries and sources of inspiration.


VARIOUS & GOULD

When we discovered this work, we thought at first it was a nicely cracked window of an empty storefront.

We were on our bikes and just after we had already passed it and were waiting at the red light, we glanced back: ‘Did you see that window? What was it: broken, scratched, painted? Let‘s have a second look!’

When we turned around we saw these delicate graphic lines. And we understood this was an artwork. Now the detectives in our curious artist minds awoke and we were wondering how this was made.We came to the conclusion it might be the left over borders from stickers, applied to the window stripe by stripe.

We really enjoy the intriguing yet unobtrusive appearance of these works, of which we have discovered more since. It took us a while to find out the artists name: Birgit Hölmer.

We haven’t met her though. It‘s so striking that public art can still appear in new forms and surprise you!

Various & Gould. Art work by Birgit Hölmer. Berlin, Germany. March 8th, 2017. (photo © Various & Gould)

 

Various & Gould

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