MICHAEL HIRSCHBICHLER

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OSB pan­els, square timer, PVC and rub­ber floor­ing, lac­quer, liq­uid asphalt, light­ing fix­tures, mir­rors, 750 x 300 x 275 cm, 2015–2016

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The instal­la­tion “Chiaroscuro” con­sists of two cor­ri­dors: one white and bright­ly lit, like an asep­tic hos­pi­tal hall­way, the oth­er one black and dark, allud­ing to gloomy pedes­tri­an under­pass­es. Both are abstrac­tions of every­day func­tion­al spaces that in their reduc­tion and styl­iza­tion resem­ble stage sets. With the title “Chiaroscuro” on the oth­er hand, ref­er­ence is made to the jux­ta­po­si­tion of bright and dark areas in Baroque paint­ing. At a more gen­er­al lev­el, the sym­bol­ism of bright and dark is often used to con­struct moral cat­e­go­riza­tions found­ed on the oppo­si­tion of black and white, good and bad etc. The instal­la­tion can be locat­ed in such a field of ten­sion between ratio­nal plan­ning, aes­thet­ic drama­ti­za­tion and moral classification.

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