Kirsten Pieroth

Kirsten Pieroth is an emerging Berlin based artist interested in ideas of dislocation and authenticity. For example, invited to the 2002 Tirana Biennale in Albania, Pieroth contributed Berlin Puddle, literally a puddle of rain water the artist siphoned from a Berlin street into containers, then transported to Tirana, where she emptied the brackish water onto the gallery floor. “I regret that a previous engagement prevents me from accepting your kind invitation to dinner at your home, on Thursday evening, September seventeenth,” is a sentence taken from a letter written by inventor Thomas Alva Edison. It was also the title of this installation work in its prior incarnation at Klosterfelde Gallery in Berlin. Pieroth's interest in the life of Edison led to the discovery the inventor often made excuses to avoid attending social functions. Pieroth then wrote to the American Patent Office requesting a patent on behalf of Edison for the invention of the "excuse.” This and other of Pieroth's letters to Edison scholars tangentially combine with sculptural elements including a new piece made especially for the Contemporary Art Gallery, to question the subjectivity of historical records. This will be Pieroth's first solo exhibition in North America.