MICHAEL HIRSCHBICHLER

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wall­pa­per
dimen­sions variable
2017

In the cycle “South Sea Papers” orna­men­tal wall­pa­pers are the medi­um with­in which an inves­ti­ga­tion of the colo­nial his­to­ry of the South Pacif­ic area is car­ried out. Ethno­graph­i­cal pho­tographs tak­en at the begin­ning of the 20^th cen­tu­ry are here­by col­laged into orna­men­tal struc­tures, manip­u­lat­ing late Vic­to­ri­an wall­pa­per pat­terns. The works are cen­tered around a crit­i­cal reflec­tion of the con­cep­tion of the so-called ‘sav­age’, which is con­strued as the ‘oth­er’ and jux­ta­posed to the West­ern mod­el of civ­i­liza­tion. Preva­lent clichés and world views of the colo­nial peri­od are tak­en to their extremes and trans­ferred to the aes­thet­i­cal­ly pleas­ing realm of orna­men­tal wall­pa­pers, thus becom­ing exot­ic spa­tial back­drops, which only reveal their the­mat­ic com­plex­i­ty and absur­di­ty upon close inspection.

South Sea Papers (Sav­age Wall­pa­per), 2017

South Sea Papers (Sav­age Wall­pa­per), 2017

South Sea Papers (Sav­age Wall­pa­per), 2017

South Sea Papers (Sav­age Wall­pa­per), 2017

South Sea Papers (Sav­age Wall­pa­per), 2017