The Songbird's Suicide

“The Songbird's Suicide“ exhibits the artwork of the Hamburg-based artist Nils Kasiske. With his collection of filigree and monochrome illustrations and objects of suicidal songbirds, Kasiske presents a multi-layered and conceptionally elaborate piece of work. His first publication can be read as an aesthetic comment on dominating design directives and our digital world but as well as a series of drawings that subtly describes underlying structures of every day life in the city. At the same time, Nils Kasiske turns out to be a story teller: With his seemingly anthropomorphic protagonists – the songbirds – he often shows real-life events – for instance the suicides of Kurt Cobain, Marilyn Monroe or the entrepreneur Merckle – that always show set piecs that could be described ad the self-chosen end of an individual and personal life story: The songbird’s suicide. Kasiskes artwork circles around personal destinies, the ambivalence of individual and mass culture, genius and insanity, rebellion and hype as well as greed, money and self-discovery. What the respective motives of each suicidal songbird may have been remains a secret. The story itself is left to the viewer’s imagination as Kasiske’s artwork always requires two sides: The artistic impulse on the one hand and the audience’s individual interpretation on the other. “The Songbird’s Suicide“ is a direct request for communication and interaction. And answers are expressly desired.

ISBN: 978-3-940558-45-9
Nils Kasiske
22,5 x 22,5 cm
88 Seiten
Hardcover
Deutsch, English
2009