Markus Vater

How does one measure the reach of a smile? What do we discover when we interview the ocean? To recognise the wonders of the world, we don’t need to embark on grand adventures; all it takes is a curious perspective on the world, much like that of Markus Vater. He makes everyday objects tell a story; he reveals the world to us in all its beauty, complexity and unpredictability. The 27 works on display here, from his 2023 series Objects of Significance, offer thought-provoking insights and invite us, with a touch of humour and profound humanity, to notice objects and details we might otherwise overlook, placing them into fresh, unfamiliar contexts.

Markus Vater, who lives in Düsseldorf and London, blends drawings, sketches and photographs with commentary that places what we see into a new context. He often visualises familiar idioms and metaphors, setting them in a humous context. These literal visualisations create moments of estrangement and disorientation, encouraging us to view the world around us through new eyes.

The artist regards writing as an act akin to drawing, giving equal weight to both image and text. Since we in Central Europe are accustomed to “reading” from left to right and top to bottom, we also first engage with the pictures in Objects of Significance, before moving on to read the accompanying text. This leads us to form initial impressions based on the drawings or photographs, while the accompanying text that we then read fosters new associations. This prompts us to reflect on the mutual relationship between text and image, and we are invited to question things that seemed obvious before. In this way, we realise how much in life isn’t immediately apparent or easily understood – and therein lies much in life’s beauty and poetry.