Kerim Seiler

notes re ℝⁿ

It is instructive that for a title K. Seiler should prefer not to express ℝⁿ as ℝ ⁿ, despite the prevailing custom of making a title explicit through not only italicization but concomitant the de-italicization of any pre-italicized aspect. For K. Seiler ℝⁿ is an inviolable mathematical expression, italicization of which might short-circuit the esteemed reader.

K. Seiler was born in Bern. Following a desultory Berlin stopover, K. Seiler and family settled in Zürich’s Niederdorf. The strapping boy was permitted to roam freely, unthinkable both now and then. Lip-balm in smallish tin box smelling of strawberry. K. Seiler’s grandmother, whose birthday is today, directed the children’s department at the Paradeplatz fashion emporium. In contrast to his family’s bohemian surroundings, K. Seiler was always dressed as a lord. The family moved to Ticino.

As a growing child K. Seiler had two friends, Isorno and Silvio. To this day he sees both on a regular basis. K. Seiler and family resided in a large old mill next to a bridge — the Ponte dei Cavalli — and the Isorno river. Each spring with the melting snow and resultant high waters the massive boulders in the riverbed would alter their position a tad, and with that a shuffling of various pools would give way to dam-building form stones of all sizes to create swimming pools.

Swallows would nest under the eaves of the mill. During summer K. Seiler’s towel on those boulders would heat up in the sun, contrasting markedly with the chilly river water. On mountaintops blueberries would present themselves as a reward for longer hiking efforts. Fall would bring out chestnuts, which would be eagerly collected while trying not to be poked by their spiky hulls. They enjoyed eating them fresh from the oven with butter and cheese. The donkey was and remains the animal of choice.

Mother, mother
Where’s the butter
Ye shall have no past

The kindergarten was situated in a desecrated chapel atop the village Intragna, flanked by vineyards and a station with a tiny funicular that would regularly bring them up to a mountaintop.
K. Seiler spent a great deal of time in his father’s basement studio collaborating, the father painting and printing, the boy drawing and painting. The mill was inhabited by a bevy of orchestra conductors, mathematicians, graffiti sprayers and tabloid kingpins. It was a maze with a different story crouching ‘neath each creased face. With impeccable timing a messianic sister was born.

At one point K. Seiler and family circumnavigated Earth. During these important formative years, they sojourned to Mexico and the Yucatan peninsula, auscultating nature’s subtle vibrations amid pyramids and Mayan families. K. Seiler mounted a tree and, undercarriage obfuscated by a branch, projected lollipops down to grateful colleagues.

Eventually School began and, on the first day, he broke an arm playing the Crocodile game, which entails running symmetrically in circles while flapping both arms up and down, open, and close. Thenceforth K. Seiler’s teacher obliged him to sit in the middle of the first row, so that she might more keenly observe and tap. K. Seiler’s otherworldly mother then suppurated everything K. Seiler had learned up to that point, and every intention he had ever had, into a private book ‘ℝⁿ’. (D. Woodard)

Kerim Seiler (*1974, Bern, CH) Lives and works in Zürich and Berlin. He aims to bring architecture and art into a dialogue, where the perceptions of space play an important role, as does the experience of colour as well as colour theories. Numerous works are large scale public installations in Switzerland and abroad. Seiler has shown his work in various exhibitions in Moscow, Cairo, Cracow, Marseille, Zurich, New York, Berlin, Paris, Los Angeles and Johannesburg, including institutions like Kunsthalle Zurich, the Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, the Kunsthaus Zurich, Cabaret Voltaire, Sexauer Gallery and the Art Masters St. Moritz. He also participated in the 4th Moscow Biennale.

Opening hours Friday, 11 am – 6 pm, and by prior arrangement.

Exhibition Duration 17 March – 05 May 2023

www.grieder-contemporary.com

Location:
Grieder Contemporary
Lärchentobelstrasse 25
8700 Küsnacht
Switzerland