JOHN M ARMLEDER
From the moment he/she enters John M Armleder’s installation for the Kunstraum Innsbruck the observer finds him/herself in a boudoir of memories and reminiscences. This, one feels, is an almost erotic encounter with and handling of the predecessors, forerunners, those who gave the cues.
Armleder has covered the walls of the tripartite exhibition hall in the Kunstraum Innsbruck with shining orange-coloured foil reminiscent of a pleated wall covering. One of the long sides is hung with four oblong picture objects in the classical format of representative portrait and landscape painting just as, in private surroundings, it used to underline the creditworthiness of the owner. These picture objects carefully handmade from velours, velvet or deco fabrics are also ‘pleated’ like the wall coverings but they differ as to their rhythm or, one could say, their structure. In the opposite half of the room the artist has distributed four neon ‘targets’ in generous distances from each other along the wall.
The repertoire of references, quotations and cues which Armleder light-handedly plagiarizes in this new installation can be outlined with a few keywords. On a first and basic level the decorative kitsch of the cheap gift and picture shops is being transposed into the “white cube” of the exhibition space. From recent art history it is for one the neon installations of Dan Flavin and Bruce Nauman’s neon objects one is reminded of, but also Jasper Johns’ and Kenneth Noland’s ‘targets’ or the crumpled reliefs of Robert Longo. The pleating meanwhile, seen as a leaving behind of traditional figurativeness, puts us in mind of Piero Manzoni’s monochromatic picture objects. His friend and Zero-colleague Lucio Fontana had given neon its place in art in order to abolish the boundaries between space and picture. With greater distance from the artistic point of view we again arrive at the question of interior decoration, namely at the precious wall coverings of the baroque and other ages which one finds quoted preferably in hotels as an enhancement of the ambience. Looking back on the early days of art we realize that pleating could define a general trend or, in certain cases, be the hallmark of an artists individuality.
Who, despite the warning ‘Enter at your own risk,’ steps into the room looses himself in the veritable hall of mirrors that is the last two thousand years of art history. A history which has, sometimes more, sometimes less, but always and especially in our times, distanced itself from distinctions such as art vs. artfulness, high vs. low, independent vs. utilitarian, aesthetics vs. decoration. We, the observers, have arrived at the accumulated ‘wealth’ of art history which – the longer we gaze at it – evokes the impression of a pitiable, even frightening ‘emptiness’. Still and all, John M Armleder wants to entertain, and in the most positive sense: one sees what one knows and the spectator is always the winner.
Curator: Renate Wiehager, Stuttgart
