For Rosemarie Trockel, Inconsistency is a Constant

A 1988 essay by curator Sidra Stich quotes German conceptual artist Rosemarie Trockel stating that ‘inconsistency’ is one of the ‘constants’ in her work. This quality is front and centre in her New York doubleheader, ‘Material’ at Sprüth Magers and ‘The Kiss’ at Gladstone Gallery – exhibitions which, combining varied media and forms with a biting sense of humour, exemplify the artist’s decades-long exploration of the vital inconsistency of the art object.

There is no prescribed order in which to view these shows, but it felt natural to begin at the Manhattan outpost of Sprüth Magers, whose cofounder, Monika Sprüth, first exhibited Trockel’s work in 1983. The gallery’s walls are painted a deep chocolate brown to match the hardwood flooring. (This strategy continues at Gladstone, where the grey-painted walls echo the polished concrete.) ‘Material’ assembles choice examples from across Trockel’s oeuvre, including free-standing and wall-mounted works that convey meaning through material juxtaposition: cheap and luxurious, old and new, functional and decorative. In a tableau of doubled objects – Château en Espagne (Castle in the Sky, 2012 and 2015) and Time She Stopped (both 2024) – simple architectural elements (seating and windows, respectively) are made unusable due to their installation in the gallery. Sometimes, such impediments accentuate objects’ political potential: for example, in Speakers’ Corner (2012), an empty ceramic soapbox overlooks the street from the gallery’s front-facing bay window, hindering the standard use of such a platform for political messaging. Lest we forget that Trockel makes her work with a wink, Without a Straw Hat (2013) and Thank God for Toilet Paper (2008) consist of bulbous, crudely shaped glazed ceramics and acrylic-resin casts that suggest base, scatological matters elevated to high art.

Whereas ‘Material’ juxtaposes older works with more recent ones, those presented in ‘The Kiss’ are all being shown for the first time – including the titular sculpture from 2025, wherein two television monitors are shown in a screen-to-screen embrace. Trockel has also mined her body of work for spare parts, constructing new pieces from previously extant and exhibited ones – with varying degrees of success. The artist used artificial intelligence to make ‘Blind Mother 1–4’ (2023/25), a series of four composite portraits of models from her previous projects; the series reads less as a reimagined work than an attempt to capture the AI zeitgeist. Wette gegen sich selbst (Bet Against Yourself, 2005/24), however, draws new complexities out of an otherwise minor piece from her back catalog. One of the first works viewers encounter at Gladstone, Wette gegen sich selbst appears at first glance to be a futurist listening booth – a Plexiglas chaise lounge containing nooks packed with classic vinyl records from the 1960s to the ’90s by musicians including Joni Mitchell, Nina Simone and Sonic Youth. This sense of comfort is undercut by the stove-top heating infrastructure holding up the heavy object and the inclusion of the original Wette gegen sich selbst from 2005: a Plexiglas shadowbox lined with mirrored and purple foil that encases a clock’s ticking motor and is affixed with a cast of a human face, its reflection looking out at the audience. (There’s a déjà-vu effect to the clockwork, which also appears in Clock Owner, 2013, at Sprüth Magers.)

Together, the clock, vintage records and death-mask countenance suggest the horrors of time’s passage and nostalgia: themes that take on additional resonance in light of the 20 years separating the two versions of the work. ‘Material’ and ‘The Kiss’ approach the art object as a changing thing – and a pliable medium that an artist might revisit and continue to manipulate over time. Trockel not only embraces this quality, but revels in its possibilities.

‘The Kiss’ is on view at Gladstone Gallery, New York until 1 August; ‘Material’ is on view at Sprüth Magers, New York until 1 August

^{Main image: Rosemarie Trockel, Made in Germany (detail), 2024, Plexiglas, heating element (copper, plastic), paint, silkscreen print, 81 × 81 × 3 cm. Courtesy: the artist and Gladstone Gallery; photograph: Ingo Kniest}