REGGIE VOIGTLÄNDER

Installation 'Made in China | The Next Generstion' combines previously realised works during the '40 titles' project with new items.

Overview.

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The new works are created by continuing to build on previous ones, which in turn creates a new generation and increasingly alienation from the original.

Connected & Disconnected landscape

Photographs of the 'Great Wall of China' taken from the internet were digitally modified into painterly images simulating a woven and embroidered structure. They were part of 'Made in China', the video that became the basis for installation 'Made in China' and became part of the collection of the 'Chinese European Art Center' in Xiamen. It marked the start of a long term art project '40 Titles'. The black and white background in this work originates from one of these stills. The actual objects that are digitally placed on top also derived from the first installation in which 95 kg with of red clothes in a sea container.

Print Screen Composition

The 'Red Rolls' contain eighteen cotton cloths (size A4) on which advertising images of models in red clothes were printed on. These images were altered to look in the same way. Each piece is drawn on with red thread. With the work in this project the global connection is emphasised, in this case regarding the trading routes that connect and influence different cultures and the intertwining economy since ancient times.

The digital journey preceded the actual. I took the famous Great Wall as a starting point because it is well known and almost a brand for the nation. This immense architectural element merges with the landscape in a natural way. It emphasises the shapes of the mountains and appeared as a fluent drawing when looked upon. It almost makes the grandeur of the landscape comprehensible.

Image: still from 'Made in China' the video. (available with password) link here

Every roll of fabric in this shop is connected to a certain traditional aspect and finds its special purpose when it is sewed into a piece, wether it's a wedding dress, curtain or bedspread. All the different regions and specific cultural habits are represented in the material.

The process of 'decultivation' eventually led to the 'Next Generation' works in which layers of screen images were placed on each other and mixed into painterly and surreal versions of the commercial originals that fill the computer screen after typing the word red clothes in the search engine. Although there are plenty different meanings that are granted to certain elements due to cultural differences, these works of degenerated images predominantly reveal the joint agreements.

These large printed images show development within a still image. The virtual movement characteristic for 'scrolling' is visualised within one frame. A shift seems to occur. The suggested layerdness also suggests a material existence within digital content, referring to the material reality behind these images.

Video work 'Redscape' is actually a digitally graffiti in motion over a file of 'The Next Generation'. It was created with traditional Chinese landscape painting in mind. The video develops from landscape to city building and industrialisation. All in painterly suggestion. It turns quite apocalyptic at some point and again it is painted over, only to return to the beginning. Like a vinyl record skipping at a certain point.

Video 'Redscape' - 'Made in China | The next Generation' projected on the side. Background: sculptural video installation 'The Columbarium'. Click to see

Other work was situated on the opposite wall.