Psychedelia is one of the alluring buzz-words of Autocenter‘s newest exhibition, the first of its Re-Discovery series that will run through 2015. The exhibition intends to host a dialectic between two artists: one from a younger generation and one from an older one. So, naturally, the overlap between all generations is a fascination with psychedelia.
Snark aside, the current Autocenter show features work from Sture Johannesson, with Laura Buckley‘s pieces working as the reviving energy to “reclaim” new viewers to Johannesson’s art.
Johannesson’s work takes up the first room, with a simple line of text collages forming general shapes and pleasant nonsense from Japanese newspapers. At first I felt left out because I didn’t know what the jumbled characters said, but reading the brochure and background of the German artist, I realized that he has no idea what they say either. He writes, “I made them by making nothing.” These “Omnidelics” are pleasant enough, but I wish we saw more of his digital work that he made in the 1980’s with one of Europe’s first Apple computers.
Technology comes full force as one steps into the next room, with Laura Buckley’s five channel video projections running down the walls with unfocused spots of glitter and kaleidoscopes of other shapes that seem to be something found at the end of a microscope. It’s hard to avoid the projectors, causing shadows of those entering the room to jump from wall to wall. These are further distorted by the fan-folded mirror in the corner, resulting in shards of light and image.
Play on perception influences both artists’ work, and the fact that the end results differ so much despite similar interests as artists is a compelling dynamic. It can be easy to group artists by their generation or their styles but Re-Discovery, with its first showing, showcases artists whose experimental work may have been previously glossed over, and also reminds viewers to not restrict their own viewing tastes.
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Blog entry by AJ Kiyoizumi in Berlin; Friday, Apr. 04, 2014.
