Swarm Painting One
Hans Kupelwieser
digital airbrush on tarpulin
ø 171 cm
1998
Acquisition 2000
Inv. No. 0073
“Painting?” What one sees is the snapshot of a teeming, highly dynamic occurrence. Something reminiscent of a magnetic field or a microscope specimen actually comes from a fish farm in Lunz am See. A precisely perpendicular photo camera was directed at the surface of the water in a breeding tank; the wriggling threads are thousands of newly-hatched fry.
The patterns resulting from the “water ballet” of the young fish are based on the complex overlap of synchronous and irregular processes. For example, because of their genetic programming, the fish attempt to swim head-on to the current of the fresh water being pumped in – Pixels à la nature.
The artist is a mediator between natural law and aesthetics, between “chance” and precision. In connection with Kupelwieser ‘s discursive metal sculptures, Robert Fleck talked of “relative sculptures” – a creative process in which the particular circumstances are an essential part of authorship: art without absolutist pretentions.
Wolfgang Kos, 2005 (translation: Tim Sharp)
Continue readingExhibitions
Nach Rokytník. The collection of EVN, MUMOK, Vienna, 2005
Publications
Hans Kupelwieser. Reflections, Nuremberg 2012, p. 40
evn sammlung 95–05, Cologne 2005, p. 192 f
Hans Kupelwieser [on the occasion of the exhibition “Hans Kupelwieser: Postmediale Skulpturen”, May 8th – June 20th 2004, Neue Galerie Graz am Landesmuseum Joanneum; 2004/2005, ZKM/Museum für neue Kunst, Karlsruhe], Ostfildern-Ruit 2004, p. 40
evn sammlung. Ankäufe 2000–2002, Maria Enzersdorf 2002, p. 30