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30/9/2004

Drawn by Reality

Two galleries, Pittsburgh

Drawn by Reality - Encapsulated in Life
Curated by Jan Schuijren

Antoine Schmitt (FRA) | Vexation 1 | 22 Cubes Ensemble
Femke Schaap (NED) | FOUT EEN/WRONG 1
Dagmar Keller / Martin Wittwer (GER/SUI) | Say Hello to Peace and Tranquility
Rick Buckley (GBR) | Progress/Regress
Thomas Steffl (GER) | Helikopter
João Onofre (POR) | Untitled (Vulture in the Studio)
Miriam Bäckström (SWE) | Rebecka | Anonymous Interviews
Saskia Olde Wolbers (NED/GBR) | Placebo | Interloper
Carl Michael von Hausswolff/Thomas Nordanstad (SWE) | Hashima, Japan
Neil Jordan (IRL) | Not I
Oliver Schwabe (GER) | Verstärker/Intensifier

We are no longer naïve anymore when it comes to our awareness that images of the real are not necessarily to be taken as real. We know that images can be chosen very selectively or subjectively, manipulated in order to proclaim a certain chosen truth. We are perceptive of the fact that images are better at telling lies than words already are, the inimitable involvement in the image is just too strong to hold up against any reasonable doubt. In our adulation of the image we even take for granted the fact that our consciousness of self has become suppressed, if valued at all. The omnipresent media have stretched their sensory reach to a point where we’ve become addicted to the continuous stream of sensational stimulants they so cunningly throw at us. Our cognition of the world surrounding us is no longer based on experience; it is so much easier to give in to the instant availability of readymade moments so seductively on offer . Our (pseudo) world-consciousness has become so globalized that our own, the one of the self, has become subordinated.

In the present time, our notion of experience has undergone an intense makeover. Its status as ‘real’ has been gradually eroded by the increasing and overwhelming manifestation of carefully developed and standardized models of living. We seem to consciously choose to replace our personal experience by a mediated relationship with the world: instant gratification over profound reflection. Our indulgence in this is not just a powerless surrender since it is we who create this transformation ourselves. It can actually be considered a perfectly logical, even rational, reaction to the outside world presenting itself as reality when it so clearly isn’t. Within a world where there’s no space or time left for subject, it becomes almost unacceptable to be involved in individual reflection, or to look for subjective meaning. Authenticity has become relative, to the point where we seem to be celebrating this achievement as if it were a true liberation.

Within the visual arts, we expect artists to anticipate these tremendous but elementary changes, to translate the inconceivable into the individual. The problem being that, in order to imagine and represent the unimaginable, one needs a reality to refer or submit to. But what to do with a reality that has become fictionalized to such an extent that true and false seem indistinguishable?

Drawn by Reality – Encapsulated in Life presents the work of artists who permeate the creases of reality and bring to light its contradictions, calling on our inner forces in order to engender subliminal interpretation. In a setting that calls for vigorous involvement, these works enter into the subconscious and reveal concealed instincts that we so anxiously suppress. By appealing to our gut intuition, our coveted desires and our intellectual exigencies, they sharpen our senses and evoke a descent into the vault of our core.

Antoine Schmitt’s Vexation 1 confronts us with the hidden and contradictory forces that underlie our thoughtful considerations by presenting an autonomous abstraction of self that is pushed and pulled in all directions by invisible energies, yet which stubbornly manages to follow the set path it drew for itself, continuously pursuing its repetitive track to no end. In Femke Schaap’s WRONG 1, familial drama lies in frozen threads of introverted gestures depicted in the fragmented reality of a literally deconstructed film. Amidst the projected three-dimensional characters one senses the oppressive effect of life’s compartments. Say Hello to Peace and Tranquility mercilessly exposes how the logic of fact has been taken over by the logic of simulation. Replacing the real by symptoms of the real, Dagmar Keller and Martin Wittwer seduce us into an irresistible hyper-reality that seems hard to surpass, until we come to realize that their constructed model world is one devoid of humans, idolizing only the facades of life.

In our favoring of simulation as a welcome and easy alternative to the authentic, we seem to restrain our experiential senses and neglect our inner forces in order to freely enjoy this newfound life. In Rick Buckley’s Progress/Regress, we are thrown back to our gut in a harsh way. In front of this wide open orifice spewing distorted laughter, we cannot else but descend into our own cavities and look for the hidden excitations waiting to be released, giving in to true emotion.

This inner energy is sublimated in Thomas Steffl’s work Helikopter. In a face-to-face confrontation with a helicopter, blades rotating at full speed, the modulated sound incites a host of creative urges eager to be unleashed. Affected and charged to the limit, we leave this piece with the euphoric feeling that life is ours for the taking. Noticeably similar yet strikingly opposite, João Onofre’s Untitled (Vulture in the Studio) illustrates what happens when we let a giant vulture loose in a world without references. Conditioned for survival, it tries its best to cope with the enclosed space, bringing out a primal reaction to the artificial boundaries surrounding him. Meanwhile, trapped in a huge projection, the autonomous entities in Schmitt’s 22 Cubes Ensemble appear perfectly at ease in their confines. Individually rotating at their own speed, they touch and thereby affect each other’s movements and directions. Despite assuming a collective and systematic strategy in their efforts, we witness their attempts being stifled by their own internal impediments.

In order to return profundity of thought to our evermore flattened image of the living world, imagination seems to offer an escape route, an essential alternative to the simple mimicking of pre-fabricated models we so eagerly appropriate. Samuel Beckett’s Not I, here in the intriguing film version by director Neil Jordan, stars “Mouth” as the personification of an aged woman who remained silent most of her life. In her startling and torrential autobiographical monologue, “Mouth” denies accountability for the ruins of the fallen world in which she finds herself, persistently referring to “she” and avoiding her awareness of “I”. In Miriam Bäckström’s captivating plays on the formation of identity, her works Anonymous Interviews and Rebecka introduce obviously staged experiences that we cannot but take for real, performer included. We allocate significance to stories that openly give us an abundance of reasons to doubt them - a telling indication of our lingering desire for meaning, as well as a need for a revalidation of genuine experience .

The eloquence of the imaginary is taken to the sublime in Saskia Olde Wolbers’s uncanny tales of personal disaster, Placebo and Interloper. In her surreal and dreamlike worlds, time appears to be suspended; there is no place for people, all the more for plot. Through the compelling narratives unfolding in her abandoned, hovering world, Olde Wolbers brings to life emotions that originate from the crypts of our being and leads us through the corridors of our seditious selves. Hashima, Japan is a venerable reflection on existence, meditatively showing industrial ruin and human disaster as the consequence of a self-entanglement that, in the neglect of our natural habitat, becomes destructive to the point of no return. This work by Carl Michael von Hausswolff and Thomas Nordanstad unmistakably exemplifies the cause and effect of our interventions, although its consequential meaning has unfortunately not yet exerted its influence. In Oliver Schwabe’s Verstärker/Intensifier, the swimmer in the test basin is forcing his way against an artificially generated current. Although his strokes are powerful, he remains suspended in the slightly curving water. His efforts do not appear as desperate as one might expect in this hopeless and uncompromising moment. In his regular and forceful efforts, he takes control of the situation, not with the objective of surpassing the current, but perhaps of simply attempting to defy it.

As society extends itself further, and our unique position in this global mass becomes more and more blurred, we seem to be forgetting that by adopting consensus and wearing these accepted constructions of self, we are in fact denying our capacity for intervention and action. In a world where involvement has become secondary to sensationalism, we need art to put things into perspective and advocate our individual experiences and perceptions. Drawn by Reality – Encapsulated in Life offers works that bring about these essential thoughts and pull our core emotions from out of our inner selves. Their translations of reality enable us to consciously perceive and challenge our everyday existence, calling for a revalidation of our distinct, personal role in the creation of society in an attempt to give individual meaning back its place.

Jan Schuijren
Amsterdam, September 2004

More info on the exhibition
http://www.drawnbyreality.info

Venues:

Wood Street Galleries
601 Wood Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
(412) 471-5605
http://www.woodstreetgalleries.org

SPACE
812 Liberty Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
(412) 325-7723
http://www.spacepittsburgh.org

Please note: Special Gallery Hours
Tuesday - Thursday, 12 - 8 pm
Friday - Saturday, 12 - 10 pm

stampa

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