“Adoration of Artificial Nostalgia v0.1 and v0.2” is a play on the very idea of photography, picture making, the experience of interaction with the created, the trust in photography as a medium of truth. And it is about layers upon layers of memory.

The work consists of 12 individual panels that are arranged in an altar-like configuration.

The work is divided into areas that play specific roles. The bottom part of the work is a triptych, with a main horizontal panel and two vertical ones. The central panel looks like a grey landscape that is being attacked by abstract plants and flowers which seem far too intensely coloured to be in any way rooted in reality.

In the background it appears that tree-like objects are on the move. The light of the background suggests that this might be an image of a storm, the foreground seems to be closer to us and there are hints of a blue sky, but in unexpected places.

All of the images seem a bit out of focus and so the viewer is asked to imagine, add, complete what they might be possibly looking at. In fact, the focus is set so that the viewer might experience moments of the artwork being more-dimensional and moving.

The side panels look more as if they were impressionistic views of a related landscape. The left panel is dark with some abstract elements that could possibly be rocks or something more sinister. The right panel seems to have elements of water and grass and perhaps some remnants of snow. The left panel appears to be descending into darkness, while the right panel appears to be nature emerging from darkness)

Above the triptych are 9 images, here the work appears to be dark and also somehow painted and ephemeral.

There is a strong sense of symmetry and there seem to be hints of plants or other more spiritual pieces of the world.

The panels are dark and reflective. The viewer is invited to ask themselves what is the image and what is the reflection of reality, the room and themselves.

While these are static images, they are created to allow an interaction and questions. The arrangement of the panels and even the title seem to remind us of not just altars but perhaps even some echoes of specific altarpieces. However, upon further inspection the viewer will discover that all of the panels are in the HDTV 16x9 format. (This format is in fact also the proportions of the main panel of the Ghent Altarpiece). And the version number contained in the name implies that this is a work in progress and that more versions of this work could be developed. (More will be, however the process is very complex and quite time consuming.)

The question is how the images could progress. If this is the first of a series, what will be the evolution of the work? Where did this work start, what did it start from. What parts of it will continue in the future?

The work asks more questions than it answers.

It also interacts with the space where it is displayed. This work was first shown at the exhibition “Ursprünge” at the Heussenstamm Foundation in Frankfurt.

There it was alive with reflections of the German city right outside the windows of the exhibition space. 

Here, at the Particle Memory exhibition in London, the reflections come to the work. They depend on how many people look at the piece and how they engage with it. However the red colour of the gallery works with the colouring in the work.

What is not on display here are the thousands of photographs used to develop each one of the panels of the work. Unlike in the Gotland series, the dataset for this work was bigger and consisted of images I collected for years at various locations around the world. From Asia to Europe, Middle East and the Americas. 

  
Frankfurt 05.2024,

edited in London 10.2024

  

Adoration of Artificial Nostalgia

One of the hottest days in memory

The drawings are made with ashes collected on January 1st 2023 on Wilhelmsplatz in Offenbach am Main. The night was very loud and a major amount of fireworks was launched. So many in fact that it was easy to collect the material for these drawings. The drawings are a key piece in the Exhibition “Ankommen” (Arriving) at Haus der Stadtgeschichte in Offenbach am Main. (2023.01.29 - 2023.03.19)

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Witold Riedel