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Picture This! (1)
Ung kultur, Västerås
18.12.2000 – 8.1.2001
”Mounted
a bit too high up on a window wall, a row of dioramas have the spectators
climbing on radiators in order to follow an open-ended narrative
describing the activities of a Mr. Rose. The placement of the dioramas
and the peeping through to see the images, thrives shamelessly on
the voyeuristic pleasure that is a natural inclination for most
of us. Mr. Rose, acted out by the artist himself is a transparent,
anonymous, male presence immaculately dressed in a grey suit and
always seen from behind. For every diorama there are three different
ways of perceiving the scene, using left, right or both eyes. One
of the two mono visions exclude Mr. Rose, which makes his appearance
and disappearance all the more ghostlike as you move from left to
right eye and backwards again. Mr. Rose fondles a girl-friend, goes
for a walk in the park, falls into a bush, enjoys himself in a playground,
eats alone in a diner and takes a ride in the underground all seemingly
to his environments utter indifference.
In wireless headphones that enable you to move freely in between
the images, a soundtrack provides the scenes with a sentimental
distance and underscores the illusiveness of Mr. Rose with forgotten
disco hits like Imagination´s ”It´s just an illusion”.
Yes, you’ve heard the songs before, you just don´t know
when or where. Mr. Rose is not just another human existence gone
by unnoticed but rather the extra possibility inherent in every
situation.”
Helena Sundström
Visual Arts Administration/Royal College of Art, London
The Audio-CD ”16
possible soundtracks for Mr. Rose” offers a different
approach towards a more filmic perception of the photo-series. By
proposing a range of songs, whose lyrics may as well function as
a script, a new level is added to this open narrative. Well hidden
amidst the other songs, Hangl provides his own, in which he sings
about the exhibition’s central character. In spite of being
very wordy, ”Mr. Rose” reveals nothing much about him,
again leaving the audience to its own imagination.
hereandgone (1)
Ung kultur, Västerås, 18.12.2000, 18 hrs. (duration:
25 min.)
actors: Roland Hedlund, Inger Norryd, Oliver Hangl
soundtrack by: UKO,
UKO/Oliver Hangl
A film-like narrative scene, which is pictured in the photo-exhibition,
is played live by two characters accompanied by a soundtrack, just
like an imagined clip from the (non-existing) movie "Picture
This!" comes alive.
The performances-setting makes use of Ung Kultur’s architectural
characteristics: one of its large-window-front offices is turned
into three adjacent flats (each separated by a fake wall) for the
performance, which can be looked into from across. Out of a 10-meter-distance,
the audience is placed on the balcony-like extension of the second
floor’s exhibition space, a clearly voyeuristic position.
read the script
>>> Picture This! (2)
and hereandgone (2)
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