Tobias Rehberger
9 o’clock (my time is not your time)
9 o’clock (my time is not your time) by Tobias Rehberger pertains to a series consisting of three numbers: 5, 10, and 11 works were made for the exhibition “Signs and messages from modern life” at the Kate McGarry Gallery in 2007. The notion of time is a recurring theme in Tobias Rehberger’s work. We can recall the exhibition ‘Night Shift’ at the Palais de Tokyo ( Paris) in 2002 where the works could be seen only from the angle of the sun, exploring the relationship between day, night, and other natural cycles like the sun and moon, life and death. But in 9 o’clock (my time is not your time), time becomes a pattern. The artist manipulates the number nine by printing it on three stacked glass plates. Depending on the position and the viewer’s eye, the shape evolves to deconstruct the meaning completely. This work is characteristic of the artist’s practice in the way in which he borrows 70s design (in the refinement of its production, its appearance, and color), and the issue of perception, deconstruction, and transformation.
A student of Martin Kippenberger, Tobias Rehberger emerged in the 1990s as one of the major artists of the younger generation in Germany and one of the most active on the international stage. For example, he worked with the artist Olafur Eliasson and presented his work in solo exhibitions in institutions: the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, the Palacio de Cristal in Madrid, the Whitechapel in London, the Serralves Foundation in Porto or the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. Tobias Rehberger can be considered as a sculptor, in the "classic" sense, while questioning the medium and its meaning today. Close to the aesthetics of design, he realizes functional forms not like his sculptures entitled "Handicapped" or "Infections”.
Tobias Rhberger was born in 1966 in Essligen am Neckar, Germany. He lives and works in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.