Eternal harvest

2024; manipulated vegetables, ethanol, jars, chemical containers, wooden boards, stucco brackets; in-situ installation ca. 230 x 90 x 25 cm

This installation was shown in the group exhibition An' it harm none, do what thou wilt , curated by Okta Collective in February 2024 at Rosalux project space Berlin.

https://rosalux.com/

https://www.okta-collective.com/

Eleventhousandfourhundredforty

2023; 11439 frozen green peas, 1 hand-carved frozen yellow pea; ca. 20 x 28 x 28 cm (life size)

solo exhibition at Berlin's coolest secret project space @Frieren_Room which is an actual deep-freeze chamber and showcases works in a sub-zero atmosphere.

The Pyramid constists of a solid architecture of frozen green peas. There are no adhesives added and it holds completely by statics and ice. On top rests a hand-carved yellow pea, depicting a human eye, apparently turning the whole sculpture into the historical motif of the all-seeing eye of providence.

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The work was featured in Dec. 2023 issue of art magazine (germany) in an article about Frieren Room, together with Hamburg-based artist Anna Ley.

earlier this year I had the joy to get art of mine destroyed forever by the honorable offsite pioneers of New Scenario

The great Stresstest took place in March 2023 and included 80+ international artists and artworks. It was released online in collaboration with Creamcake and HAU Berlin.

check the full video of Round 1: The Spike Roller here:

Rüdiger (based on a true story)

2023; instagram-manipulated photograph, silver pen, grave, flowers

This is the grave of Rüdiger. I buried his imaginary body for the group show 'Von Pionierpflanzen und Flâneusen', developed by Julia Kiehlmann. The exhibition surrounded the topic of abandoned and therefore vacant areas within the Eastside of Leipzig, highlighting the socio-political, ecological and also emotional meaning of these urban wastelands for their human visitors. I placed the grave on a nice spot next to a little bush, on a wide so-called 'Brache' underneath a car traffic bridge and besides train tracks. A perfect place to bury your beloved animal friend.

Rüdiger was an experienced tomcat living on a graveyard in Leipzig West. One of his eyes was dead and his fur was always a little filthy. He looked a little grumpy but he was actually a very friendly fella who also enjoyed some company, since he used to sit directly at the gate of the boneyard, where all the people would enter. Shortly after the first socially traumatizing lock-down, due to the pandemic, in 2020, he suddenly disappeared without a trace. His body was never found and people believe that some lonely soul kidnapped him as a companion. I kind of identified with that cat, ever since i first met him when i was doing a sculpture on that graveyard. One day, for no special reason - more as a little joke - I placed my own face on his picture with that simple spot camera in the instagram story tools (unfortunately the zuckerberg deactivated that nice tool a few years ago). This cute picture of Rüdiger (including my own hand in it, petting him) finally turned into a funny kind of ego-cam mirror self portrait. And I had turned into the Cheshire Cat version of Rüdiger. Needless to say, it somehow felt like burying myself in that lovely little grave under the bridge.

fare well, Rüdiger

inhale/exhale

hand carved carrot, car, underground parking lot; life sized

my contribution to the great offsite groupshow series 'POTLUCK' organized by Rhizome Parking Garage and Underground Flower for Soloshow.online and was published in early 2023.

The whole show with many great artists is available here

↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓

https://soloshow.online/potluck.html

thx to Ian Bruner and Halo <3

alrighty then

My turnip-cabbage-made handwriting on the wall for my 2022 solo exhibiton Schöngeist Zeitgeist Poltergeist. During the show, it turned from a vivid, fresh condition into this skeletal and dry veggie letters. Since it wasn’t so easy to spot the black nails when it was still rich and green, they became quite visible after decay, how they supported and held together this fragile construction.

Oct./Nov. 2022 @ Kunsthalle.Ost, Leipzig

Dis/Simulatio artis

Schöngeist Zeitgeist Poltergeist von Tobi Keck

Text von Teresa Ende

Alrighty then. Das berühmte Mantra des Film-Detektivs Ace Ventura – zur Überbrückung unangenehmer Gesprächspausen ebenso effektiv wie zu deren Beendigung – prangt als monumentaler Schriftzug aus Kohlrabi- und Blumenkohlkraut an der rechten Wand der Ausstellung Schöngeist Zeitgeist Poltergeist. Was bei dem US-Starkomiker Jim Carrey Catchphrase, Phraseologismus und paradoxer Weltkommentar ist, bekommt in der dreiteiligen Werkschau des Berliner Künstlers Tobi Keck (*1987) einen weiteren Spin. Denn obwohl die in der Handschrift des Künstlers modellierte Sentenz mit geschwärzten Stahlnägeln an der finalen Ausstellungswand befestigt ist, fungiert sie doch weniger als Schlusspunkt denn als Türöffner, der zugleich nach vorn und zurück, nach außen und innen verweist.

Augenmaske, schwarze Krähe, Teufel und Zombie. Den Auftakt der Schau bildet die Untitled überschriebene Sammlung von Dutzenden Gruselmasken, die an der linken Wand des Ausstellungsraumes angebracht sind. Tobi Keck hat die Masken – sämtlich industrielle Massenware – im Laufe des vergangenen Jahres in Discountern und Supermärkten zusammengetragen. Dabei stellt ihre Akkumulation, Multiplikation und Reihung in der Ausstellung die Wirkung des Ausgangsmaterials auf den Kopf: Aura und Grusel sind nur im Singular zu haben. Ein wandfüllendes Register von Gruselmasken dagegen erzeugt keine Angst, sondern eine grotesk-absurde Monstrosität, bei der das Als-Ob-Spiel des Verkleidens in seiner Gleichzeitigkeit von Vergnügen, Verstecken, Zeigen und Realitätsbewältigung mit der banalen Warenästhetik der trashigen Objekte kollidiert.

Formal wie inhaltlich verbunden werden Schriftzug und Maskensammlung durch die am Boden platzierten Dumbsters. Diese bestehen aus gelochten Papierbeuteln, die mit minimalistischen Siebdrucken versehen und wiederum mit Blumenkohl- und Kohlrabiblättern gefüllt sind. Zusammen mit den paarweise gestanzten Löchern ergeben die Siebdrucke auf jedem Beutel ein anderes, auf dem Kopf stehendes Emoticon. Dabei werden die allein mittels Computertastatur erzeugten Bild-Symbole, die für Gefühlsäußerungen wie Freude, Trauer oder Überraschung stehen, in die Dreidimensionalität übertragen, subjektifiziert und quasi verlebendigt.

Auch diese Arbeit basiert auf der programmatischen Verfremdung und  Umdeutung des Vorgefundenen, auf einer Gleichzeitigkeit von Verbergen und Zeigen: Die Piktogramme stehen Kopf und erscheinen doch „richtig herum“, weil das aus den Öffnungen der Beutel ragende Gemüsekraut an wild hervorquellendes Haar erinnert (und wie dieses im Laufe der Zeit seine Farbe und Struktur ändern wird). Die Beutel-Objekte selbst sind sowohl rudimentäre Masken mit Augenlöchern als auch fantastische Rüben-Köpfe – und gleichwohl nichts als bloßer Trash: Datenabfall auf einer Altpapier-Mülltüte, die mit Biomüll gefüllt ist. Mit Schöngeist Zeitgeist Poltergeist reflektiert Tobi Keck unsere Gegenwart ebenso klug, hintersinnig und humorvoll wie die eigene popkulturelle Prägung. Entertainment trifft auf Realitätsverzerrung trifft auf dissimuliertes Nichtwissen trifft auf die Ironie von Tiefstapelei und Verkürzung. Was logisch nicht einleuchtet, kann doch Wahrheit ausdrücken, und umgekehrt. Alrighty then.

© Teresa Ende, Oktober 2022

Dumbsters

:3  :’(  :/  :P  :O  D:  :?  :-)  :-[  :-s

2022; screenprints on perforated paper bags; vegetable waste; life size

In ‘Schöngeist Zeitgeist Poltergeist’, the two big wall pieces were accompanied by 10 different little guys, filled with fresh weeds of cauliflower and turnip cabbage. Every single paper bag had a well-known emoticon screenprinted on them. The usual colon (double-dot) eyes of the emoticon-faces was two holes punched into every bag, that turned them into a bag-mask that would perfectly fit over your head. Like the vegetables on the wall, the big amounts of cabbage weed in the compostal bags also went into strong decay during the 4 weeks of display and created an atmosphere of sour smell of rotting cabbage.

(*each bag was also released as an unlimited edition, folded and combined with dry pressed weeds, in black alu frame.)

Untitled (monster mask collection)

2022; monster masks; wall dimensions 4,20 x 4,10 m

Not just metaphorically speaking, the ‘alrighty then’ wall piece was facing the this whole wall of all different kinds of disguises. The collection currently holds more than 200 pieces that come from costume shops, supermarkets, low-prize-stores, etc. and therefore only from an contemporary industrial origin. In a fashion of the ready-made object, this untitled art piece itself is meant to be an accumulation of just what it is.

Shown at my latest solo show ‘Schöngeist Zeitgeist Poltergeist’ at Kunsthalle.Ost, Leipzig.

October 2022

alrighty then

turnip cabbage weed, cauliflower weed, black nails; ca. 2,40 x 3,20 x 0,1 m

This large vegetable wall writing was part of my latest solo exhibition ‘Schöngeist Zeitgeist Poltergeist’ in october 2022 at Kunsthalle.Ost, Leipzig. It is a projection of my personal handwriting, depicted with dozens of vegetable waste weed from the supermarket, which was nailed to the wall with unhidden black nails. The one-liner ‘alrighty then’ is a quoted catch phrase by Jim Carrey’s film character Ace Ventura. During the 4 weeks of exhibition, the organic material went into visible decay and turned dry, brown and mouldy. Furthermore, the exhibition space got filled with a strong odor of - fresh at first - to then rotting cabbage.

visit Kunsthalle.Ost in Leipzig, Riebeckstraße 19

Make a wish 🕯

aluminum tinfoil, aluminum bars, candle; 4,60 x 3,90 x 0,60 m

(*pictures in the background are by Bimal Fabbri)

this floor-installation was produced as my contribution to the groupshow ‘Fasting of my Fantasies’ at ACUD Galerie in Berlin in July 2022.

The exhibition was curated by Paula Ďurinová, Gabriela Matuszewska and Alžběta Čermáková and displayed the following artists:

Bimal Fabbri, Tobi Keck, Danielle Magee, Deniz Şimşek, Tanat Teeradakorn & Joe Highton, Lena Valenzuela

Make a wish 🕯

aluminum tinfoil, aluminum bars, candle; 4,60 x 3,90 x 0,60 m

this floor-installation was produced as my contribution to the groupshow ‘Fasting of my Fantasies’ at ACUD Galerie in Berlin in July 2022.

The exhibition was curated by Paula Ďurinová, Gabriela Matuszewska and Alžběta Čermáková and displayed the following artists:

Bimal Fabbri, Tobi Keck, Danielle Magee, Deniz Şimşek, Tanat Teeradakorn & Joe Highton, Lena Valenzuela

Voltumna

2020; broccoli, spirit, jars, plaster, chemical container, stamp on fabric, copper bowl, verdigris, fire, sticker

displayed at the group show ‘Baum’

March 2022 at Zuostant, Berlin

L u r e r

2022; aluminum tinfoil, stucco, light bulbs, cables

ceiling piece, recently displayed at Holden Garage, Berlin

at the duo-show ‘Beneath a sunkissed Bow’ with Amy Parker

curated by Ella Krivanek

Feb - April 2022

Based

Feel introduced to the other 8 of 9 characters that form my little footpath from the sidewalk of Meißner Straße in eastside Leipzig right into the little public park that is Skulpturenpark Neustadt.

Based; 9 slabs of concrete casts; Ø35 cm each

Skulpturenpark Neustadt was supported by Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen, Stadt Leipzig, Neustädter Markt e. V. and Unser Haushalt Leipzig

organised by Kunsthalle Ost, Bistro 21, Ideal artspace and Fonda Projects      

Based

'Based' is a permanent footpath by Tobi Keck, consisting of 9 different concrete slaps, in a small public park in Leipzig, Meißner Straße. Each of the reliefs is a round face composed out of real vegetables and cast into concrete. It was part of the project Skulpturenpark Neustadt, initiated by the artist-run exhibition spaces Kunsthalle Ost, Ideal Artspace, Bistro 21 and Fonda in October 2021. The project was supported by Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen, Stadt Leipzig, Neustädter Markt e. V. and Unser Haushalt Leipzig      

Big Fungus

A little excerpt from the huge collection of artists and mushrooms from the offsite event Big Fungus.

Works shown here:

1) Johanna Blank Dress, 2) Tobi Keck Twee Hugger, 3) Marten Schech chairs Nr. 2 and Nr. 1, 4) Isa Schieche Toadstool, 5) Tilman Hornig untitled (sad), 6) Hannes Uhlenhaut Lowguru, 7) Layla Nabi Zigarettenautomat

watch the complete line up here:

http://soloshow.online/bigfungus.html

Exhibition developed, curated and photographed by Tobi Keck