Daniele Buetti's images first strike the viewer as colorful, bright, and playfully burlesque. To create this series, he designed templates on a computer, which were then cut from acrylic glass by a laser. Alfred Hrdlicka at the age of ten witnessed the "Anschluss" of Austria into the German Reich. Politics per se are a recurring theme in his entire work.
Daniele Buetti
oh boy oh boy
Daniele Buetti's images first strike the viewer as colorful, bright, and playfully burlesque. They seem like shiny high-tech hybrids of ancient mosaics, stained-glass windows, and puzzles, in whose surfaces viewers find themselves reflected under the gallery's fluorescent lights. Rich colors and dynamic lines create a festive atmosphere, and the delicate honeycomb structure that covers many sections of the pictures is reminiscent of the fractured surface of a disco ball.
To create this series, Buetti designed templates on a computer, which were then cut from acrylic glass by a laser into individual color fields. These pieces were fitted precisely back together to form the large final images. This laborious, quasi-old-masterly technique, executed with the newest technology, contributes significantly to the inherent fragmentation of each piece's meaning. Beauty becomes a mask that highlights the horror instead of veiling it. Buetti continues to surprise us with his unique combination of new and old forms of image production. His methods often derive from photographic processes, but never become simply a formal goal in and of themselves, or a display of mere technique.
(excerpts from a text by Hans Rudolf Reust, translated from German by Anne Posten, published in ARTFORUM, September 2011)
A catalogue will be published on the occasion of the exhibition in collaboration with Galerie Feldbusch Wiesner, Berlin.
-----
19.01. - 03.03.2012
Alfred Hrdlicka
political works
Alfred Hrdlicka was born in Vienna politically troubled times, characterized by violent struggles between socialist and conservatives. The First Republic Austria was increasingly dominated by national socialist groups and parties at that time.
Because of his father, an illegal communist and trade union official, early on he was aware of political matters. Already in 1933, then five years old, he accompanied him while handing out leaflets in working-class district Floridsdorf. At the age of six, he experienced a house search, where he was beaten by the police and his father was arrested. At the age of ten he witnessed the "Anschluss" of Austria into the German Reich.
Politics per se are a recurring theme in his entire work.
Image: oh boy oh boy VI, 2010 , acrylic glas mosaic, ed of 2+1ap 180 x 140 cm
Opening: Thursday, 19 January 2012, 7.30 pm
Buetti will be present.
Hilger contemporary
Dorotheergasse 5 1010 Wien
Hours:
Tue–Fri 11 am–6 pm
Sat 11 am–4 pm