OK by Stefan Brüggemann

Comprising–and sometimes mixing–statues, video, picture, and illustration, Stefan Brüggemann’s art uses text in speculative installations harmonious with sharp social commentary and a post-pop aesthetic. He is from Mexico City, the artist’s creation is identified by an ironic combination of Conceptualism and Minimalism. That’s why, Brüggemann’s work to differ of the modern artists functioning in the 1960s and 1970s, who sought dematerialization and discarded the commercialization of art. But his aesthetic is elegant and rich while keeping a punk position.

Using neon lamps, vinyl lettering, or decorated texts, Brüggemann’s art is often drawn titled and creates disagreement that question the idea, position, and actions that we typically expect for artworks.

“(THIS IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE)”, Stefan Brüggemann

For example, in 2012 work by the Bass Museum in Miami, Brüggemann has done the phrase “(THIS IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE)” on one of the exhibition’s outside walls. The work was demanded by the company but suggests that its presence is either misplaced or wrong. Such puzzles threaten the values and ideas we usually take for granted when watching at art.

The word “OK” by Stefan Brüggemann

FOLKESTONE. – Stefan Brüggemann has exposed OK (work without a name) new public artwork in Folkestone. For this significant foundation, the facade of a house in the town’s Creative Quarter has been to gold-filled with the word ‘OK’ written over it in black splash color at the massive scope. The artwork, selected by regional not-for-profit arts company HOP Projects for its office, has been designed during the lockdown as an answer to the current situation and is characteristic of Brüggemann’s often-ironic practice.

Gold sheet, historically kept for artworks dedicated to transmitting spiritual or real financial power, is used by Brüggemann as an art for an informal and critical method of interpretation: graffiti. The word “OK” is composed of employing heavy lashings of color in a gestural method that transmits the abundance dropping down in black lines from the letters. Protest movements and resistant people often do public writing and graffiti to tell disagree, but that standard is reversed here with the use of a word that implies neutrality or reception.

Brüggemann describes: “This wrong note creates a difficulty in the mind, it helps the viewer to think what it means to be apolitical, happy, or just “OK”, in the modern political environment. There is a basic question in the word “OK” and exploring this context overturns our expectations–is it a symbol of acceptance or dismissal or even believe? The purposes of artworks can change, usually varying depending on the context, and I have advisedly left this installation so open to discussion. It might unite people in a special way at this moment, but that feeling might also change with age.”