Artist: Georg Dahled
Exhibition title: LDRs
Venue: Idealfrühstück, Paris, France
Date: November 19, 2023 – January 7, 2024
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Idealfrühstück, Paris
“So, the first work is on the way to you by postal mail. Let me know once it has arrived. It comes from London.”
“Ok I’ll let you know. I’m leaving on Monday to Toulouse for 10 days.”
“Should be there until then.”
“Is it big?”
“It is A3 format. Should fit into your mail box.”
“Has it arrived yet?”
“Not yet.”
“Do you receive postal mail in Paris on Sundays?”
“Nope.”
QSL cards – the CB radio community still exchanges them nowadays, at a time when this means of communication hardly seems to have any relevance anymore. Also, QSL cards are still sought-after collector’s items. The function of a QSL card is quite simple: CB radio operators send them to each other to confirm that radio contact has taken place at a certain time. The front of the card shows the respective radio name, usually embedded in individual design elements, and the back contains information about the radio contact, the locations, and the audio quality of the exchange. The greater the distance between two radio stations, the more exclusive the status of the cards exchanged.
Georg Dahled uses QSL cards from the 1970s and 1980s as source material for his LDRs (= Long Distance Relationships) shown at Idealfrühstück. He is primarily interested in self-designed QSL cards and in the handmade quality that is inherent in them. In a time before Photoshop and the easy availability of scanners, radio operators usually designed and created their own QSL cards, drawing them, adding collage elements, or reproducing them from templates with great attention to detail. However, graphic design to emphasize the radio name, as usually used on QSL cards, fades into the background in Dahled’s LDRs as most of the text elements have been removed to allow the image to take center stage.
Enlarged to A3 and screen-printed on acrylic-coated cardboard, Dahled’s works also move away from the postcard format of the QSL cards. However, sending them by regular mail, which leaves scuffs and traces of transport, is of enormous importance for the LDRs. In the run-up to the exhibition, Dahled posted a whole series of them to Idealfrühstück from various cities in England, Germany, and Austria. Their condition clearly shows that they have been on a strenuous journey.
In contrast to the QSL cards of the much more regulated amateur radio community, which primarily follow formalistic design principles, the cards of CB operators are much more amateurish – and therefore much more playful, experimental, and informal, with little fear of mistakes and faux pas. Although both the radio technology and the postal system appear to be outdated today, both forms of communication still have a certain nostalgic appeal. By drawing on these, Georg Dahled subjects his works to conditions that seem outmoded, but the acceptance and overcoming of which can lead to the deepening and strengthening of long-distance relationships
Georg Dahled is an artist with a focus on (post-)conceptual issues. A major part of his works investigates modes of communication through the relationship between text and image, between characters and mark-making. Dahled regularly spends long periods of time in remote places around the world, but he also enjoys living in metropolises from time to time. He holds an MA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Arts, London, and has exhibited at Bemis Center for Contemporary, Omaha, NA, US (2023), the Flatiron Gallery, NY, US (2023), Cathy, Furth im Wald, DE (Solo 2022), IVS Gallery in Karachi, PK (2021), the Arnolfini, Bristol, UK (2021) and Tate Britain, London, UK (2019), among others.
