Peppi Bottrop
The Birds

Apr 8th – May 30th, 2020
Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf

Copyright the artist; Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf; Photo Achim Kukulies, Düsseldorf
Copyright the artist; Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf; Photo Achim Kukulies, Düsseldorf
Graphite and charcoal on canvas
244 x 366 cm
Copyright the artist; Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf; Photo Achim Kukulies, Düsseldorf
Copyright the artist; Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf; Photo Achim Kukulies, Düsseldorf
Copyright the artist; Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf; Photo Achim Kukulies, Düsseldorf
Graphite and charcoal on canvas, artist's frame
244 x 122 cm
249,5 x 127 x 6,4 cm (framed)
Copyright the artist; Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf; Photo Achim Kukulies, Düsseldorf
Copyright the artist; Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf; Photo Achim Kukulies, Düsseldorf

Aristophanes (414b.c.)

The scene at the back represents a great rock in a wood. Enter two Travellers; the first, an elderly man of commanding presence, is led by a Crow on a string, the second, plump and cheerful, similarly led by a Jackdaw. Their names are not known till, at l. 645, the First Traveller announces himself as PITHETAERUS, a fictitious name meaning “Companion-Persuader” or “Born Leader,” and his companion as EUELPIDES, “Hopefulson.”

Euelpides To his Jackdaw.
Straight on, you say? On to the tree up there? Pithetaerus: Confound the creature! Mine is croaking “Back.”
Euelpides: But why do we do it? Trapesing up and down, Backward and forward, like two shuttlecocks, With no sense? It’ll be the death of us.
Pithetaerus: To think I should have tramped a hundred miles And more, by orders of a wretched crow!
Euelpides: And I, by orders of a cruel jackdaw, Have stubbed my toe-nails off. Just think of it!
Pithetaerus: I don’t know where on earth we are by now. Could you ever find your fatherland again?

......

Pithetaerus: Build one great city.
Hoopoe: We birds? What sort of city could we build?
Pithetaerus: You ask that?—Is he blind beyond belief? — Look down.
Hoopoe: I’m looking.
Pithetaerus: Now look up!
Hoopoe: I’m looking.
Pithetaerus: Now turn your head right round.
Hoopoe: And will it do me Much good to have a dislocated neck?
Pithetaerus: Did you see something?
Hoopoe: The clouds and sky.

...........

Meton: Applying then
A straight rod, I proceed with measurements
Until your circle grows into a square; T
he centre of the quadrilateral is The market-place, and towards that centre run Straight roads centripetal; just as a star,
Being itself by nature circular,
Has radiating from it rays of light
Quite straight in all directions.

About Peppi Bottrop

Peppi Bottrop (*1986) formulates a distinctive visual language that shifts between constructivism and deconstructivism, between figuration and abstraction.

Artworks

Related Publication

Parallel Exhibition