Artists: Øystein Aasan, Awst & Walther, Eduardo Basualdo, Thomas Chapman, Paolo Chiasera, Pauline Curnier Jardin, Sophie Erlund, Christian Falsnaes, Nadira Husain, Daniel Jackson, UJINO, Anca Munteanu Rimnic, Nathan Peter, Ariel Reichman
Exhibition title: Chroma Key
Curated by: Anna Frost and Andreas Schlaegel
Venue: PSM Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Date: December 13, 2014 – January 17, 2015
Photography: Courtesy of PSM
In the most famous scene of the Wachowski Siblings‘ movie The Matrix (1999) the protagonists enter the „construct“, a white space without borders, where everything can be willed into existence, „loaded“ by sheer power of mind. In utter emptiness they exist merely as „residual self-images“. It is all too apparent, but the „construct“ resembles the very convention that still appears to be an indispensable frame for the presentation of works of contemporary art, the white cube.
In daily life today, however, contemporary art is more often seen on computer and mobile phone screens, than experienced first hand. Does this render the artwork in the white cube obsolete, merely a physical residue of a virtual image?
The launch of a new website for the PSM Gallery is the starting point for adding to the traditional format of the gallery accrochage, a survey of work by the gallery artists a virtual showcase. The challenge for the artists in this lies not only in producing virtual contexts for existing works, without necessarily leaving out the mundane antiques and trickery digital means make possible. Rather the project offers the opportunity to employ the evirtual presentation to extend or juxtapose the inherent theatricality of any white cube presentation.
The exhibition title refers to the chroma key effect, most often used to isolate objects from their background, as to insert them into dramatic virtual landscapes. For us it serves as a metaphor for the increasingly variable relation of the artwork to its context.
In five installments of groups of three and in alphabetical order the artists will show work in the gallery white cube of which has been emphasized for this display. Additionally they will provide customized presentations to be seen online. While the pieces in the gallery change over the exhibition period, the virtual presentations will agglomerate on the gallery website.
