|
KunstPraxis 4
Catriona Shaw and Nick Bötticher
22.09. - 21.11.2003
Berlin-based artist Catriona Shaw translates her personal
observations about art and popular culture into sketches,
videos, and music. Her comic-like narratives arise spontaneously,
as though they were diary entries in response to her
surroundings. Stories about life and death, characters
from the pop or art world, and animals who play human
roles reflect her socially critical but usually also
humorous thoughts. The "Sliding Puzzle" for the waiting
room in the company doctor's office consisted of individual
motifs which patients could combine to create a variety
of surreal stories. Sketched onsite by the artist, these
pictures were directly related to the context of the
doctor's office. The puzzle was an interactive game:
patients who were waiting to see the doctor could repeatedly
change the images.
Nick Bötticher's artworks develop from a system whose
coordinates are the relationship to a particular place
and the artist's personal response to each site. Bötticher
uses various media (which may include installations,
sketches, videos, films, and sound) to react to themes
involving biography, aesthetic discourse, or history.
For KunstPraxis, this Vienna-based artist embarked on
a search for identity and investigated the issue of
his cultural origins. As the protagonist in a shot-on-site
video called "Dreifarbweg" ("Tricolor Path"), he followed
a black, red, and gold emergency guidance system on
the floor of the corridor in the doctor's office. He
ran across the national symbol of his native country
and towards the emergency exit. The extremely elongated
escape route became a synonym for his own "forward flight."
The repetition of this movement defined the endless
attempt to orient oneself according to a particular
nation, homeland, or identity.
|
