Posted by
Jason Urban on July 28th, 2008 |
The hot, hot heat of summer is upon us and the cinemaplexes are chock full of action-packed superhero excitement. Iron Man. The Hulk. Hancock. The Dark Knight. But maybe these movies are too slick for your taste? Maybe they’re a little too Hollywood? Well, here’s an alternative… Atzgerman. Created by Atzgerei, a band of Austian designer/artists, Atzgerman: The Movie is bizarre glimpse into the somewhat anticlimactic adventures of “a screenprinting superhero.” He’s named for the Austrian city of Atzgersdorf. Why hasn’t someone thought of this sooner?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnbi2Xv7ND0
Here are some screencaptures.The embedding option has been disabled so I can’t paste the video directly into the post. Click on the link above to watch Atzgerman on youtube.
If you’re familiar with Seattle print-artist Ben Moreau’s work, it’s almost as if one of his characters walked out of a print and into an episode of The Monkees. My favorite part is the glowing phone (though the convulsive transformation is a close second). At one point, Atzgerman appears to give someone computer advice. I don’t necessarily understand it but that may be the point.
One of Ben Moreau’s Lithographs.
Posted by
Jason Urban on July 12th, 2008 |
Photo credit: Andrea Sohler or John Marburg photography Berlin
While doing some research on potential printeresting mascots, I stumbled across this phenomenal piece by German artist Ottmar Hörl. Using the power of the multiple, Hörl’s sculpture/installations are expansive. This particular work, The Large Piece of Rabbit, replicates in three dimensions Dürer’s famous watercolor/gouache drawing, A Young Hare. Hörl installed the piece in Nuremburg’s Old Town in 2003 to celebrate the Dürer drawing’s 500th anniversary. In case you’re wondering, there was no explanation for the color choice.
Below is a Google-translated (yikes!) excerpt from the press release:
That “classic” in the art is not necessarily an equally dusty as elitist matter for experts, but also inspiration and vitality in the here and now mean – that has the Nuremberg rabbit birthday last year proved. On the occasion of the anniversary 500ten by Albrecht Dürer’s famous painting “A young hare” had Sebalder in the Old Town and an art festival celebrated for the nationwide uproar in the sketches provided. Of course, Nuremberg’s most famous son again this year 500 years ago a genius String delivered. And because the celebrations must, as they fall, committing Nuremberg in the coming August anniversary of Dürer’s “great lawn”.
And a little more:
The idea of the serial also has a major strategic advantage: “The original rabbit hangs in the Albertina in Vienna,” says Hörl, “once again be the Nuremberg her rabbit not stolen. If one or other of my rabbits to Tokyo or San Francisco Go this makes nothing. There are still plenty of rabbits in Nuremberg. “ Excellent idea: Rabbit and Hedgehog exchange roles. Whoever in the future the Nuremberg her favorite animal but does not, will the wundlaufen hoes, and where he also nachschaut just that: the hare is always already there.
I think we can all agree with that sentiment- the hare is always already there.
Posted by
Jason Urban on May 10th, 2008 |
While flipping through the pages of the April issue of Wallpaper, I was surprised to notice the work of Columbian artist Miler Lagos. Pictured on page 293 with former President-turned gallerist Cesar Gaviria were two of Lagos’ sculptural printworks. Though the story failed to even mention Lagos, I was happy to be reminded of his work. Art on Paper did a one page feature on him a few months ago but since then I’ve heard little. Lagos is a sculptor and his work does give some weight to the old stereotype that often the most interesting printmaking comes from non-printmakers. While I don’t think this is always the case, I do think coming to print from another discipline can free an artist from the usual print baggage.
Lagos’ sculptural printworks are something of a cross between Felix Gonzales-Torres and Noriko Ambe… using a stack of offset prints, he carves tree stump-like forms. The offset stacks are comprised of identical images from the history of print (Durer, etc.). Lagos takes the multiples and carves them en masse into singular objects- from tree to paper, from paper to tree.
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