Vincent Trasov
Controlling Chaos
ChertLüdde, Berlin
11 January – 22 February 2025

Red-yellow flames move wildly into the sky as thick, black smoke rises over Vancouver. After a few minutes, the ashes and char calm the blaze—dulling to reveal the traces of different flammable liquids left behind, the lingering evidence of its deliberate creation. What seconds before was chaos and plume, is now controlled and calming, simmering until the fire burns itself out.

This scene is from Flammable (1969), a film documenting one of Canadian artist Vincent Trasov’s (1947, Edmonton, Canada) early experiments with process painting. Inspired by Yves Klein’s fire paintings, this was one of the first artistic experiments Trasov did to better understand fire’s transformative and uncertain principles. The residual elements of similarly unpredictable performances are featured in the artist’s latest exhibition at ChertLüdde, Controlling Chaos, along with related videos shot in Vancouver and Berlin.

Throughout the gallery, banner-like canvases display uniquely distressed surfaces, marked and streaked from chemical reactions, bearing the imprints of blazing wooden logs and melting snow that interacted with the enamel and acrylic-covered canvases. The resulting organic textures create a sharp contrast with the geometric forms revealed on the surfaces. These and the other process paintings were all made in Berlin after Trasov and his frequent collaborator, Michael Morris (1942, Saltdean, UK – 2022, Brentwood Bay, Canada), moved to the city to participate in the Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD in 1981. Morris, closely observing Trasov’s process, once described these artworks as “by-products of investigation” and a visualization of Trasov’s interest in ephemerality and his resistance to homogeneity. Known as the Berliner Bilder (1982), the burnt canvases assert Trasov’s direct engagement with his surroundings, acting as a time capsule that anchors him in Berlin during the turbulent period surrounding the fall of the Berlin Wall and the flux of the 1980s and 1990s.

Amongst the hanging canvases are also works of paper, in which he returned to a similarly uncontrollable element he previously used in Canada: copper sulfate. As with the fire performances, this method allowed Trasov to transform the artworks by heat-treating paper, altering the colors and creating visible tonal changes across the surface. Some of these paintings would remain abstract, with clear brush strokes or gradients of color. Others, as with the Boys’ Choir series (1980s), contain simple text, using stencils from the German Democratic Republic.

In the center of each piece of the Boys’ Choir series are words such as “BOY,” “JUNGE” and “GARÇON”, each translation carrying its own cultural resonance. With the metal stencils bought on one of the artist’s regular trips across the Berlin Wall, Trasov was able to explore the tension between the unpredictability of the heat-sensitive process and the standardization of the Soviet-designed tools. The variations within the Boys’ Choir series reveal that even the consistency of the stencils cannot suppress the inherent irregularity of Trasov’s creative process. His works thus push against the constraints of uniformity, embodying again a tension between control and spontaneity. In some instances, this exploration even led to the complete destruction of the artwork itself.

Presented on a large grid, the heat-treated paper works of Boys’ Choir are shown alongside the artist’s collaborative video with Morris titled Ständchen (1986). Filmed in West Berlin at Savignyplatz, the video features two boys interjecting Franz Schubert’s serenade with the sounds of their laughter and a cacophony of popping balloons. This playful scene unfolds near August Krauss’s (1868, Duisburg, Germany – 1934, Berlin, Germany) Knabe mit Ziege (Boy with Goat, 1931). The sounds of the city—cars, the S-Bahn, and chirping birds—interject throughout the scene, transforming the film into a testament to the chorus of voices, noises and objects that resonate across the city. Together, these elements and the antics ensuing within the video create an homage to West Berlin’s Fluxus presence, blending Classical melodies, modern city sounds, performance and moments of silence into a dynamic and layered composition.

Adding an unexpected layer of intrigue to the Boys’ Choir series, the reverse sides of the artworks—visible on the back of the large, grid-like frame—reveal hidden sketches by Michael Morris from a different point in time. These sketches introduce yet another dimension to the artistic process, further complicating notions of control. Acting as “by-products,” this interactive series challenges the artist’s authority while granting each piece a unique sense of autonomy. In doing so, the process paintings defy categorization, becoming not just representations of a finished product but symbols of the artist’s broader method of image-making.

The artworks in Controlling Chaos are deeply connected to the cultural landscape of Berlin before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall, reflecting the avant-garde spirit of a time marked by social and political upheaval. Vincent Trasov’s works in this exhibition showcase his effort to control this chaos, transforming unpredictability into something deliberate and meaningful. These pieces are not just products of a specific time and place, but reflections of the artist’s ability to confront and shape disorder into a cohesive vision.

Biography

Vincent Trasov (1947, Edmonton, Canada) is a painter, video and performance artist. Deeply involved in the development of networks, his work is often media-based and has a collaborative spirit. Image Bank, which he co-founded in 1970 with Michael Morris, facilitated an international method for personal exchange of information between artists. Using aliases that frequently changed, Image Bank was a subversive project reworking images and text found in mainstream media.

Since 1971, Trasov has been working with video. It was around the same time that Trasov assumed the alter ego Mr. Peanut through performances, Mail Art, happenings, exhibitions, drawings and sculptures. Many of these performances as Mr. Peanut were recorded on tape, including his campaign as Mayor of Vancouver in 1974.

In 1973, he was co-founder and co-director of Western Front Society, Vancouver, a center for the production and presentation of new art activity. In 1981, he was invited with Morris as a guest of Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD to Berlin. Ten years later, the two founded the Morris/Trasov Archive, now in the collection of the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver, to research contemporary art and communication. Trasov has had numerous international exhibitions and is represented in public and private collections in both Europe and North America.

At present, he continues to live and work in Germany and Canada. While in Germany, he helped to establish the Werkstatt Brandenstein, a production and presentation center for contemporary art in Brandenstein, Saxony-Anhalt.