Lemmata

Eigen + Art is pleased to present Lemmata by Maja Behrmann. In her artistic practice, which ranges from painting and installation to object and textile art, Maja Behrmann develops shapes and patterns into expansive ensembles. Colourful wooden sculptures, fluid knitting and collaged tableaux come together in a dynamic triangle of object, space and viewer. Her repertoire of fragments and elaborate characters is rooted in the bureaucratic process of collecting and organising drawn outlines of exhibits from a wide variety of disciplines – including crafts, geology, architecture, design and everyday utensils – and it is constantly growing. References to one another, intermediate forms and overlaps, as well as the conditionality of the materials, continually generate new arrangements and inventions. Each perspective reveals further cut-outs and overlays, creating combinations and connections. "Sharpening, pointing the tool. Changing the blade. Change of position. Changing my position.Threading, stringing together. Not new; transformed. Calibrating, regrouping. (Against) wanting to classify. Rotating to find orientation in the explanation gap. A set piece is movable and can be transferred, can therefore be integrated from an existing context into a new one. Flexibility, re-use, correction. Filling voids with other material to create a stable base. Oxford Languages says: “In lexicography and linguistics, the lemma is the basic form of a word, i.e. the one word form under which you can find a term in a reference work.” Likewise: “In Mathematics and Logic auxiliary sentence. One generally smaller, proven statement used to prove a larger statement.”" —Maja Behrmann, translation by Hagen Hamm