TRANSFORMATION

Transformation

Opening: 7th February 2014
Exhibition continues until 4th April 2014

After participating in the art fair UNPAINTED with Labor 45 – Barbara Herold und Kat Petroschkat, we are showing the works of the artists for the first time in Haleh Gallery in Berg.

In the exhibition TRANSFORMATION we will present the work TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER!, which consists of an animation and a print series. LABOR 45 was founded in 2007 by Barbara Herold and Kat Petroschkat. LABOR 45 is about artistic research on today’s technical features and aims to find new possibilities for the application and as mean of. Thus electronic circuits, programming, the handling of data streams and the development of technical devices are part of their artistic repertoire.

The technical means in TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER! play an important role: The animation and the print series are based on 4800 vector graphics generated with a programming in Processing of video material. Its pixels were transferred into graphical symbols according to their luminosity.

Pixels and graphic symbols are transformed into female bodies dancing colorfully and rhythmically in swinging motions across the image surface, just to be disassembled into their components in breathtaking pace. The computer-generated images interweaved with pop cultural elements and an aesthetic, which reminds us of early computer games create a mesmerizing imagery that the observer can hardly resist.

As the narration progresses a shift of meaning can be observed: At the beginning the signs and symbols serve to construct the figures, but then the pixels become more and more independent and leave nothing more than empty body shells behind. Apart from the technical finesses of the artwork, the construction and deconstruction of the female body can be read in two ways on a meta level: On the one hand it provides the observer an innovative concept of identity. Identity, especially female identity is by no means a fixed continuum, furthermore it is a performative creation of individual elements. The women dancers and computer game heroes in TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER! are not more than ornaments from signs, numbers, symbols and pixels.

At the same time these works formulate a criticism of the representation of the images of femininity and women. Since representations of women in the media are often only digital designs having hardly anything in common with real persons. They are rather anonymous avatars created through image manipulation programs.

Barbara Herold (*1977) lives and works in Munich. She studied New Media and Digital Media at HBKsaar Saarbrücken (Prof. Ulrike Rosenbach und Prof. Tamás Waliczky).

Kat Petroschkat (1979) lives and works in Munich. She studied Art at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich (Prof. Magdalena Jetelova und Prof. Gregor Schneider).

Exhibitions Labor45 (selection): Tacker, Galerie der Künstler, München (2013); SaarArt, 10. Landeskunstausstellung des Saarlandes, Stadtgalerie, Saarbrücken; The Fabric, MaximiliansForum, München (2012); International Art Biennale, Caochangdi Gallery of Art, Beijing/China (2010)

Haleh Gallery cordially invites you and your friends to the opening of the exhibition TRANSFORMATION  on Friday, Feb. 7th, 2014 at 6 pm.!

We look forward to seeing you!

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