At Galerie Kandlhofer, Vienna, Austria, 2023
Curated by Bjorn Stern
Action 164: Study of the Head as Cultural Artefact
Hand carved carrara marble
45 cm x 25 cm x 25 cm
2016
Action 163: Study of the Head as Cultural Artefact
Hand carved carrara marble
45 cm x 25 cm x 25 cm
2016
Action 149: Study of the Head as Cultural Artefact
Plaster, fabric
Variable dimension
2016
Curated by Bjorn Stern for Galerie Kandlhofer, the exhibition “Weltgeist” opening on January 17 2023 aims to explore the power of humanism and how it has equipped itself through history to fathom the enormity of not knowing the fundamentals of its own existence, which has caused ideologies, governmental systems, religiosity and other belief systems to function in its ersatz. Stern has included seven international artists whose respective practices illuminate the subject. Janine Antoni - USA, Reza Aramesh - IRAN/U.K., Arvida Byström - SWEDEN, Alejandro Jodorowsky - CHILE/FRANCE, Hermann Nitsch, AUSTRIA, John Robinson, U.K., and Penny Slinger - USA.
Reza Aramesh who’s works across multiple media in sculpture, ceramics, textiles and photography looks at the notion of the historical sublime in art through the filter of contemporary reportage images of violence and horror as portrayed in media and the world of entertainment. His works operate in entendres of knowingness about the history of art, a deep sense of empathy for the subjects he depicts in the present and a delivery of irreverence, desire and beauty that has been focused into a reckoning for our age of tired watching, disinterest, spiritual lethargy and myopia.
Text by Bjorn Stern