_ In the mid-1960s, a loosely affiliated cadre of artists based in Southern California including Robert Irwin, James Turrell, and Doug Wheeler — frustrated by the limitations of abstract painting — turned their attention away from the creation of conventional art objects and towards sensory perception itself.
Whether artists are exploring line, color, shape, and form or space, time, and motion or sight and perception, at one point they arrive to light as material or medium to be included in artistic reflection and concept, impartially if they are working in the analog or the digital sphere. This is a collection of traces that can feed a mind map to formulate questions of analysis and inquisitive perspectives to follow up the developments of natural, technical, and digital transformation of light rendering visible the world.
Auszüge aus der Rede zur Eröffnung der Ausstellung von Hartung | Trenz in der Kulturkirche Bremerhaven am 31. Oktober 2019. Wir befinden uns in der Pauluskirche in Bremerhaven, gebaut mit rotem Backstein im neugotischen Stil. 1905 wurde sie erstmals eingeweiht, nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg musste sie wieder aufgebaut werden. Seit 1953 ist sie der Treffpunkt der Evangelisch-Lutherischen Kirchengemeinde im Stadtteil Lehe. Es ist ein Arbeiterviertel, in dem viele Kulturen gelebt werden. Lehe gilt als sozialer Brennpunkt, die Arbeitslosigkeit liegt bei 29 Prozent, die Kinderarmut bei 48 Prozent.
_ “We work with mass materials, and for us, fluorescent lamps are a tool for composing, not on a limited screen, but in the open space.” Since 1996, physical light has been the central material of their artistic expression. “When we started experimenting with electric light, we weren’t really interested in technology. The aesthetic phenomenon was more important to us. We were thrilled that we found a material that sought dialogue with the spatial dimension.”
ARTISTS WITH REFERENCES WITHIN THIS BLOG UPCOMING TEXT PROJECTS
_ “Pictures that attack the eye” was the explaining headline of a feature on Op-art in the Time Magazine published on October 23, 1964. “Preying and playing on the fallibility in vision is the new movement of “optical art” that has sprung up across the Western world. No less a break from abstract expressionism than pop art, op art is made tantalizing, eye-teasing, even eye-smarting by visual researchers using all the ingredients…” were the opening lines and in fact, Op-art compositions create a sort of visual tension in the viewer’s mind that evoke the illusion of space and movement.
_ Kuball ’s works encompass objects, installations, and interventions that reflect on visual organization, its impact on consciousness and on outlook on the world. His works can be found in white cubes and black boxes, in all kinds of exhibitions spaces as well as in public spaces; they can be temporary as well as permanent.