MICHAEL HIRSCHBICHLER

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oil and var­nish on pho­tographs, vari­able dimen­sions, 2015

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The work com­plex “Shad­ow Saints” can be under­stood as a coun­ter­part to the “White­wash­ing” cycle. Real mis­ery finds a sym­bol­ic set­ting and sub­li­ma­tion in the fig­ures of saints and mar­tyrs stand­ing in the twi­light of baroque church­es. The glar­ing spot­light of media cov­er­age is con­trast­ed with the dark­ness of the church nich­es, from which the pro­tag­o­nists of an archa­ic human dra­ma of suf­fer­ing and hoped-for redemp­tion emerge. Here, the bound­aries between his­tor­i­cal facts, reli­gious leg­ends, and con­tem­po­rary real­i­ty blur in the rep­re­sen­ta­tion and rit­u­al exag­ger­a­tion of a seem­ing­ly time­less human martyrdom.

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