shuffle repeat

2016

HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark,
Graz

In the artist’s images shown on the upper floor of the side wing of the Künstlerhaus, der Halle für Kunst & Medien all of the isolated levels of showing visual elements now come together, opulently and laden with information and reinforce references to the circulation of images and the speed of this circulation. They seem as if they haven’t yet found their final form, as if one could watch them as they take on their shapes, and at the same time one can see how strongly they rely upon this state of being circulated and reproduced. Looking more closely at some of the pictures one can also make out passages of text, such as, “Like what you see? Click here to subscribe for more…”, which also transport their digital origins and the pressure to generate attention. If you like this picture, many more are simply one click away.
Besides questions about the choice of motifs and tapping into various visual storehouses, Mandl also address other inevitable, and occasionally unpleasant questions about artistic creativity today in „shuffle repeat.“ Because, if technology makes all images available and disposable, how can one go on a search for motifs and look for the pictures that still try to maintain a transcendent difference?