45cbm: Sarah Ortmeyer

Sarah Ortmeyer’s exhibition BADEN BADEN (German for „swim swim“) at Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden weaves together leitmotifs from the artist’s previous shows and develops them further. In Paris, one thousand marbleized raw eggs were placed under palm trees in lieu of coconuts, and subsequently projected into a dome forming a starry sky in New York. The grey hues of the eggs and stars are echoed in the branches of the palm trees which Ortmeyer showed at Belvedere in Vienna – to recur in the six bath robes framed in display caskets lining the wall. Initially created as show costumes for pop stars for a concert at MoMA PS1, the bath robes tie the show to the spa town of Baden-Baden. In the manner of devotional objects, the robes are exhibited in a chromatic sequence from traffic gray to dusty gray into platinum grey. A sorry palette for a world on fire.