An incredible spatial presence, aesthetic perfection, and dense content characterize Kwade’s oeuvre. The works of the Berlin-based artist immediately captivate with their pure material aesthetics. Gold, silver, tin, nickel, copper, lead, zinc, and aluminum are the metals Kwade juxtaposes in this work, “Thursday, September 19, 2013, 3:22:00 p.m,” arranged in eight cubes of varying sizes. All differ in hue, luster, texture, and weight; each of these metals possesses its own aesthetic character, which Kwade arranges side by side in austere cubes, thereby establishing a relationship between them. Furthermore, the cubes are arranged in a strict hierarchical order, with their sizes ascending or descending. The formal rigor of the cubes is reminiscent of famous sculptural works of American Minimal Art, such as those by Donald Judd or Sol LeWitt; however, the gradation of sizes in the cube form evokes associations with the classic stacking cubes toy. But Kwade’s cubes are anything but hollow; they are solid, allowing us to sense the individual weight of each metal.
Why is the golden cube the smallest and the aluminum cube the largest in the series? Does it have to do with density? Are all the cubes perhaps equally heavy? No, reveals the time-specific work title “Thursday, September 19, 2013, 3:22:00 p.m.”; all cubes have the same value, so this is rather about the artistic representation of a time-specific value and thus about the question of our society’s traditional values. “Thursday, September 19, 2013, 3:22:00 p.m.” makes an abstract value relationship perceptible: The man-made, fictional value of an ounce of gold, as it was priced on the stock market on September 19, 2013, in relation to the other seven metals, the pensive Rosenthal porcelain figurine, and thus also indirectly to all other material and immaterial components of our existence. But why is a tiny cube of gold worth as much to us as a large cube of aluminum? Why do we distinguish between metals and precious metals? In her art, Kwade masterfully deciphers the central norms and conventions of our capitalist society. Her works reveal a vast abstract intellectual exploration that revolves around our perception and conception of time, of economic processes and the production of value, of cosmological connections, and ultimately also of the social significance of emotional values and moral norms. [JS]