Peter Nencini's Werkbox

A new edition of Peter Nencini's Handwerk is currently exhibted in Berlin at Direktorenhaus. These works are a prelude to a larger show in September.  Nencini says: "I'm showing thirty boxes... The boxed variant pieces have grown, with markmaking of granular character. Both to magnify surface and to dispense with textual information in favour of something mute." Nencini`s cut forms are grouped with printed fabric, ceramic and

found-discarded things to constitute a kit for ‘muffled’ play. It’s based somewhat on Friedrich Froebel’s ‘Gifts and Occupations’ (1837) for the early Kindergartens. By ‘muffled’ he means a silent decision-making, both for the grouping of forms and their manipulation. Although they are for other people, Nencini says they are motivated by a need to assess his own object-literacy.

In this work Nencini has added interlockables, and continues trials of inlay. The boxes before shipping. A detail of the box label, a surface work replacing the only text on the first edition. I'm trying to get at a lack of instruction, a muffled play as

stated at the outset of this project. The woodwormish, red-green rag motif is something of an optical zoom, pulling one closer to the MDF Kraft Ply Laminate and inside the box.

It's carried through to a bar of laminate hardboard. The material, that of the damp cupboard back. A slab of kitchen strata. Also mindful of Susan Kare's Macpaint palette, out of Rob Giampietro's burst of

inspiring writing. The work is also inspired by Dust: a book by Joseph A. Amato.

Have a loog at Peternencini´s blog here.