Excerpt from

Personal Structures (GAAP/Cornerhouse Books – 2004)

“The constitution of the subject - or put less abstractly - the formation of personality, is an openly declared and quintessential component of the work of several of the artists introduced here. This applies in particular to Johannes Girardoni….it is interesting to see that Johannes Girardoni uses the expression “primary structure” in passing conversation, and certainly without historical overtones – and what is above all revealing is the way he uses it: “This element of change has taken many forms in my work, but a primary structure of it is the juxtaposition of elements that relate to one another in the form of a duality.” This means that what is “primary” here is not a pre-set basic form, no unified element, but rather something which is in itself doubled, dialogic or dialectic. It is a coexistent, or rather, an interaction, a concurrent and countervailing interplay of two basic materials, namely wood and beeswax. Anyway, these are only “basic materials” because the artist made a personal decision to use them in such a way. Girardoni’s art shows with almost didactic clarity how, due to personal, intuitive choice, a minimalist vocabulary of forms can be endowed with new emotional and evocative qualities which at the same time serve as catalysts of intensified self-experience - for the artist as well as for the viewer.”

(Peter Lodermeyer, Personal Structures. Works and Dialogues, New York City 2003, p. 15)