Computer and Paper at Jahn und Jahn

Artists: Thomas Baldischwyler, Soyon Jung, Albert Oehlen, Laura Owens, Avery Singer, Felix Thiele

Exhibition title: Computer and Paper

Venue: Jahn und Jahn, Munich, Germany

Date: September 14 – October 12, 2019

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Jahn und Jahn, Munich

The exhibition Computer and Paper explores the question of how the ubiquitous digitalization of all aspects of life can be expressed and refected in artistic practices. It does this by focusing on paper, but at the same time distancing itself from paper as a traditional medium. In its history, this medium has experienced numerous changes in terms of its practical application as well as the meaning ascribed to it, specifcally in relation to other mediums, and as such ofers the possibility to compare continuity and transformation. For, as media theorist Friedrich Kittler has stated, existing mediums are never replaced by emerging ones but rather live on, on the one hand, within those that emerge, under altered conditions. On the other hand, they are retrospectively reconfgured in terms of their structure, use, and meaning.

A quality that links computer and paper together today is their almost universal availability. They are, as it were, basic ready-mades of all artistic production, at least to the extent that they have confgured the knowledge from which an artistic subject operates, a knowledge that circulates through them via images and information. Or put another way: in 2019, all art is post-internet. A signifcant diference lies however in the double materiality of the computer, which results from its division into physical hardware and digital software and resultantly generates its own feld of tension. The functioning of the frst visual design programs, which still represent industry standards today, simulated working on paper. Thus, the entanglement of virtual paper with computer hardware has led to new image-making possibilities.

These were utilized early on by Albert Oehlen and Laura Owens: while Albert Oehlen was beginning his computer paintings in the early 1990s, Laura Owens was already using similar technical means as a starting point for her work at CalArts in Los Angeles. Moreover, it is characteristic of her works that they not only refect the technological, but also the contextual conditions of their production and circulation, for example by including elements of the exhibition location in the work. She also documented the development of her artistic career through both digital and physical sketches, as well as notes, faxes, telegrams, and e-mails with gallerists, curators, and artist friends in the publication accompanying her exhibition at the Whitney Museum. A similar dimension of self-refection can be found in the work of Avery Singer, whose practice likewise develops in dialogue with digital image acquisition and painterly materialization. From her frst piece of this type (The Studio Visit, 2012) through to newer works, currently on show at the Venice Biennale, she is constantly dealing with the question of her own artistic subjectivity, considering the way in which it is formed through technological conditions and social conventions. These elements also fnd continuity in the artistic work of Thomas Baldischwyler. His works always focus on genealogies of knowledge, practices, and images, their material connection and the conditions of their visibility and enforcement. As such, he mostly explores subcultural or marginalized historical narratives and gives them new spaces of possibility within his exhibitions. Soyon Jung and Felix Thiele follow a similar process. At the beginning of the year, in their joint exhibition Death Hoax, they attempted to produce utopian potential by intertwining traditional and contemporary means, such as etching and digital animation, in order to highlight alternative ways out of our broader present. This balance between afrmation and critical distance is crucial for all artists in this exhibition: they avoid falling for neither a traditionalism rejecting the contemporary nor for a fetishization of the current technological condition. Rather, they recognize their situation and, in dealing with it, try to create new spaces in between.

-Roy Huschenbeth

Computer and Papier, 2019, exhibition view, Thomas Baldischwyler, Soyon Jung, Albert Oehlen, Laura Owens, Avery Singer, Felix Thiele, 14.9.–12.10.2019, © Jahn und Jahn, Munich, Photo: Ulrich Gebert

THOMAS BALDISCHWYLER, Ohne Titel (PP/FF1), 2019, acrylic, silicone, UV ink and polyurethane paint on canvas, shadow gap in acrylic glass, 140 x 100 cm, Photo: Jahn und Jahn, Munich, Courtesy of the artist and Conradi, Hamburg

THOMAS BALDISCHWYLER, Ohne Titel (PP/TW), 2019, acrylic, silicone, UV ink and polyurethane paint on canvas, shadow gap in acrylic glass, 140 x 100 cm, Photo: Jahn und Jahn, Munich, Courtesy of the artist and Conradi, Hamburg

SOYON JUNG, Alles ist vergeben – Totenbuch der Städte (München, Kabul), 2019, Animation, 29:30 min

SOYON JUNG, Futur II (CSU-Parteizentrale, Munchen), 2018, Etching on laid paper, hand-made print, hand-glued foils, 38 x 47 cm (gerahmt | framed)

AVERY SINGER, Untitled, 2016, acrylic on paper, unique, 83,2 x 108,6 x 3,5 cm (gerahmt | framed), Sammlung Regine Thiess, Image courtesy of the artist and Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin

FELIX THIELE, Handy 4/50, 2018, Ceramic, 14 x 7 cm, Photo: Stefen Zillig, Courtesy of the artist and Jahn und Jahn, Munich

FELIX THIELE, Handy 7/50, 2018, Ceramic, 14 x 7 cm, Photo: Felix Thiele, Courtesy of the artist and Jahn und Jahn, Munich