New Discretions is thrilled to present Field Agents, a solo presentation of new work by Christina Kruse, curated by Tamar Dresdner. Kruse has created a body of work examining how values are destabilized and reconfigured in a turbulent world, where moral frameworks are shifting. Through sculpture, wall reliefs and collage, she embraces negotiation as the work’s central condition and poses the question: are there shared or universal values that can function as a foundation in times of uncertainty? The materials and forms here did not emerge as illustrative choices, but as intrinsic responses. Bronze, stone, marble and springs do not carry symbolic meaning, neither they are used to evoke emotions. Each material has different qualities engrained in it, which translates into different shifts of weight, inner movement and balance. The works remain self-contained, resisting spectacle in favor of quiet intensity. Color follows the same logic. Often inherent to the material itself, it avoids external emotional imposition. When introduced through primary colors, it functions as another structural system, a basic framework that parallels the grid, which is central to the exhibition. The grid appears in the wall collage Fault Lines as a stabilizing, yet flexible framework. Historically associated with modernist order, the grid is reimagined here as one that allows for the placement and reconfiguration of elements. Within it, Kruse introduces different materials, objects, photos, notes and drawings, which challenge its authority while remaining held by it. It functions as the subconscious of the exhibition and the point of departure for the sculptures and reliefs, where form is understood as the internal organization of content. Rather than depicting the human figure, the sculptures evoke states of being and suggest the body not as representation but as a container for internal forces. Throughout the exhibition, Kruse explores the tension between structure and flexibility, control and spontaneity. Simultaneously holding and releasing, the springs embedded in the wall works embody this duality, suggesting latent movement within otherwise static systems. These elements introduce the possibility that systems are not fixed but subject to internal shifts and forces, and future reconfiguration. While rooted in a lineage that includes Constructivism and Cubism, Kruse’s work does not seek rupture from tradition. Instead, it operates through a process of rearticulation, treating tradition as a foundational grid that can be expanded, questioned, and reassembled. At a moment when the boundaries between truth and falsehood, stability and disruption are increasingly blurred, Kruse’s work offers neither answers nor certainties. Instead, it holds space for reflection on processes that shape the inner being of individuals, as well as humanity as a whole.
