Elmar Lause is a storyteller of fragments. From everyday objects, found items, painting and collage he builds poetic, humorous worlds that come across like models of an absurd cosmos. His collages, assemblages and sculptures resemble cinematic snapshots from a universe that only appears to obey our own habits of seeing, before undercutting itself the next moment through subtle fractures, ironic refractions or double-bottomed titles. Lause’s wit is never blunt but precisely placed – like a stray laugh in a dream that you can no longer explain to yourself afterward. On the threshold between humor and the uncanny, science-fiction aesthetics, high culture and lowbrow art, things awaken here to a second life. In a playful way, Elmar Lause shows that countless further perspectives can be found within what already exists, and that manifold alternative stories lie hidden in the seemingly familiar. In his objects, assemblages, collages and paintings, as well as in wall works in public space, tipping moments unfold between apparent recognition and absurd, bewildering irritation.
Elmar Lause, born 1973 in Bochum, lives and works in Hamburg. Studied painting under Dieter Glasmacher and design under Welfhard Kraiker at HAW Hamburg. Diploma in communication design, 2004. Grant from VG Bild-Kunst as part of NEUSTART KULTUR.
