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7/9/2005

Martin Arnold

Galerie Martin Janda, Wien

Solo exhibition

From September 8 to October 8, 2005, Galerie Martin Janda is showing work by the Austrian artist and filmmaker Martin Arnold.

Martin Arnold is one of Austria’s most esteemed experimental filmmakers. His work explores the structure of film and the film business; he uses found footage elements from Hollywood films dating to the 1930s, 40s and 50s and develops inquiries extending beyond the medium‘s internal discourse.

For this process he employs simple techniques such as fast forward and rewind.

In his first large exhibition, in the Kunsthalle in Vienna (2002/2003), Arnold showed a selection of his early work, as well as three films conceived expressly for the exhibition: Forsaken, Dissociated and Deanimated. In Deanimated Arnold eliminated the protagonists from scenes in the film “The Invisible Ghost” (Joseph H. Lewis, 1941) and, consequently, the thread of the plot. “The viewer is left with backgrounds, erratic camera movement, seemingly panning out of focus throughout the space, capturing phantasmal changes in light and shadows. Arnold poses fundamental questions concerning human existence and presence in absence. Although the actors are no longer present, they leave behind traces (bullets making impact, stirred-up dust) and are experienced precisely in their absence as a phantasmal, unreal presence.“ (Thomas Mießgang)

Martin Arnold has completed a new film for this show at Galerie Martin Janda. Silent Winds (2005) presents Steve Major, a young acting student who sings the song “Darkness Falls” (music and lyrics by Stephen Cornine). The performer’s head is visible on three monitors. His performance is reduced to its basic components and assigned to the screens. Any expectation that the song will be recognizable when the three screens are synchronized remains unfulfilled. The song is completely undone. A large-format projection complements this three-part work. Arnold’s new films mark an astonishing development in his work. In the past, image sequences from black and white films constituted his point of departure; in this show he uses color film footage which he shot himself. His interventions are just as minimal and simple with respect to technique as in the earlier films, surveying language, singing, and human articulation.

Martin Arnold; *1959 in Vienna (AT); majored in psychology and art history at the University of Vienna; 1995 visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin; 1996/97 visiting professor at the San Francisco Art Institute; 1998/99 visiting professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Frankfurt (DE); currently teaching at Binghamton University, Binghamton NY; lives in Vienna (AT) and New York (USA).

In the gallery’s upper level we are showing new drawings by Maja Vukoje.

We would like to thank Wien Kultur / Kulturabteilung der Stadt Wien.

Opening: September 8, 2005, at 7 p.m.

Galerie Martin Janda
Raum aktueller Kunst
Eschenbachgasse 11
A-1010 Wien
Opening hours: Tue-Fri 1-6 p.m., Sat 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

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