Sequenzen

Bamberg
Nov 24, 2022 — Jan 20, 2023

Through modernity, the world had been disenchanted, as the sociologist Max Weber once wrote. The exhibition “SEQUENCES” showcases Holger Schmidhuber’s quest for this lost magic. He works with generative design tools and employs various AI systems, overwhelming digital processes to the point where phenomena like hallucination, amnesia, and unconsciousness forge paths to their own efficacy. Ultimately, Schmidhuber returns to painting, surprising with entirely new mixtures. From the “disenchantment of the world” emerges a fascinating enchantment.

The “SEQUENCES” exhibition presents not only Schmidhuber’s canvas and paper works but also pieces from the series “Carpets of the Forgotten”. The exhibited (art) carpets are partly antique, with most being between 50-60 years old. An obvious interpretation leans toward a certain act of vandalism. Visible action painting, splatters of paint, transparent and overlapping squeegee traces, sometimes less easily recognizable slogan quotes sharply contrast with the traditional craftsmanship. The process recalls Marcel Duchamp’s ironically charged overpainting of a postcard with Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa motif. The transformation of a centuries-old product into a contemporary art product sparks a certain chaos in Duchamp and Schmidhuber. As if these numerous entanglements of meaning were not enough for Holger Schmidhuber, he deliberately develops his color mixtures so that they exhibit different appearances under various lighting conditions, especially under black light. Changes in lighting conditions reveal buried, seeped-in messages in the carpet fabric.
Holger Schmidhuber (*1970) is a German multimedia artist and has been a professor for time-based media at the University of Mainz since 2010. The artist works in cycles, particularly marked by intensive and sustained engagement with the theme of memory, which are in direct interrelationship with each other.

Schmidhuber’s most recent cycle, “Sequenced Inversions,” presents sequences from the series “The Inversion of Memory,” in which Schmidhuber graphically incorporates the oriental ornamentation of the “Carpets of the Forgotten” series. In the new works on canvas, Schmidhuber expands the idea of “reversing” memory: These so-called sequences demonstrate a strong dilution of the ornamentation, further blurring their origin. Schmidhuber plays with the psychological aspect of memories fading away.