"2004"
On September 11, 2001 I found myself on the streets of New York City,
like everyone here, in a state of shock after witnessing the World Trade
Center collapse. I roamed about in Chelsea and found myself at the doors
of the Postmasters Gallery and had my first introduction to the work of
Wolfgang Staehle. In that exhibition I was confronted with, three panoramic
projections of live video feeds displayed on the walls of the gallery.
One of the images included the New York City skyline with a plume of dust
and debris covering lower Manhattan. I recall staring silently at the
images and feeling a profound sense of powerlessness. The gallery director
and I both stood in silent witness. I turned and walked out of the gallery
with that image fixed in my mind.
Wolfgang Staehle, weary of the regular channels within the art world
founded www.thing.net in the early 1990's.and became an early pioneer
in using the internet as an integral part of his work This site and web
server has played host to other art world web sites, as well as online
forums for digital art. His work integrates web cams which capture images
of architecture or pastoral landscapes which are then relayed to projectors
within the gallery.
Staehle's recent exhibition "2004" at the Postmaster's Gallery
is a quiet reprieve from the rhythms of urban living. Upon entering the
gallery once again panoramic images captured by web cams updated every
10 seconds dominate the darkened space. In the first gallery midtown Manhattan
viewed from the east river's edge of Brooklyn dominates. Adjacent to this
is a Frederic Church inspired view of the rolling hills on the Hudson
River valley. In the back gallery is a stunning pre-recorded loop of Niagra
Falls with full sound roaring into the space and serving as a vehicle
to draw you into this awesome spectacle. At the entrance, is another small
monitor capturing images of the Grand Tetons mountain ridge from Jackson
Hole, Wyoming. This last piece is less compelling perhaps because the
resolution of the image was low and pixilated and presented in a familiar
format found on computer desktops everywhere. But the images in the main
gallery have a meditative quality about them which resonates.
These mundane real time images stand conceptually on the shoulders of
Andy Warhol's 1964 film "Empire" in which Warhol captured eight
hours of footage of the Empire State Building. In the 1999 exhibition
"Net_Condition" at ZKM Center in Karlsruhe, Staehle revisited
this subject with "Empire 24/7" in which the artist captured
digital images of the iconic building resulting in a reinterpretation
of Warhol's attentive backwards gaze, turning the web cam into a vehicle
for reverence.
Staehle's "2004" evokes a degree of contemplative distance.
The work has evolved picture making and turned the traditional static
reproduction of the natural world around us into a dynamic reflection
of it. With each new image presented every 10 seconds the illusion of
sublime escape is dashed and real time forces the viewer into the position
of historical witness that has some residue of anxiety perhaps stemming
from the times we live in.
By Andrew Robinson
Written for the Gay
City News,
October 2004
Exhibition Information
Exhibition dates: September 10 - October 16, 2004
Postmasters Gallery
459 West 19th Street
New York, NY 10011
Telephone 212 727 3323
Facsimile 212 229 2829
Email postmasters@thing.net
Images of past works referenced in this article, but not included
in the exhibition "2004".
"2001"
Installation View
Before September 11, 2001
During
After
"Empire 24/7, 1999"
"Only the people at Danceteria who usually came in at three in the
morning understood my work, strangely enough. They could read it. They
could make the jump from one genre to another without a problem. They
were more visually literate than the art bureaucrats and the academics."
- Wolfgang Staehle in an interview with Klaus Ottmann in the Journal
of Contemporary Art
|
"Midtown"
2004
digital still photography
(updated every 10 seconds, projected)
09/14/04, 12:18:02
commissioned by Lumen for the GNER 18th Leeds International Film Festivale
"Midtown"
2004
digital still photography
(updated every 10 seconds, projected)
09/09/04, 15:03:08
commissioned by Lumen for the GWOLFGANG STAEHLE
"Eastpoint"
2004
digital still photography
(updated every 10 seconds, projected)NER 18th Leeds International Film
Festival
"Niagara"
2004
1 hour video
DVD
|
