MICHAEL HIRSCHBICHLER

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pig­ment print, oil, lac­quer and bleach on canvas
2015

The stream of images show­ing con­tem­po­rary wars, crimes, mas­sacres and cat­a­stro­phes is omnipresent in today’s media. The pic­tures of the »Whitewashing«-cycle are an attempt at deal­ing with present-day real­i­ty – between rep­re­sen­ta­tion and erase­ment and between sym­bol­ic sal­va­tion and sup­pres­sion. The pro­ce­dure of white­wash­ing express­es the hope to be able to dis­tance one­self from the ugly, vio­lent and neg­a­tive, and reveals at the same time the fail­ure of all such efforts. The »‘white« veils the depic­tions of cru­el­ty, gar­bles them, and thus estab­lish­es a state of indif­fer­ence, at the inter­sec­tion of curios­i­ty and repres­sion. The real­i­ty of the images is seem­ing­ly cov­ered and dis­solved, they con­tin­ue to exist in a strange twi­light zone amidst white indif­fer­ence and latent violence.

Michael Hirschbich­ler, WHITE­WASH­ING, 2015

Michael Hirschbich­ler, WHITE­WASH­ING, 2015

Michael Hirschbich­ler, WHITE­WASH­ING, 2015

Michael Hirschbich­ler, WHITE­WASH­ING, 2015

Michael Hirschbich­ler, WHITE­WASH­ING, 2015

Michael Hirschbich­ler, WHITE­WASH­ING, 2015

Michael Hirschbich­ler, WHITE­WASH­ING, 2015

Michael Hirschbich­ler, WHITE­WASH­ING, 2015

Michael Hirschbich­ler, WHITE­WASH­ING, 2015