I was lent a book on A R Penck - unfortunately this is yet another point at which my linguistic skills have failed me, it appears to be written in German. I am going to make up what I think a rough summary of the text may be from the amazing images provided. Penck was a man disillusioned with mass consumer culture. His faux-machines ‘standard-modelle’ all come under the unifying title, ‘objekt’ as if they are all one and the same, different in form but the same in function (or lack of). Made from the debris of a throw-away consumer society, their uselessness indicates a broader sense of futility in the face of mass production. Pseudo wheels, buttons and dials hold the potential for a movement made more apparent in its lack by their presence. The rudimentary marks and cut lines have the precision of a hand desperately mimicking carelessness. A deadly seriousness is hidden beneath a surface of nonchalance, a playfulness masking a depression at their own condition.

Book (if you can read German) A. R. Penck Skulpturen und Zeichnungen Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hannover