Michael Zahn

Alias (Solid Grey Medium), 2005

The works Alias (Solid Grey Medium) and Alias (Solid Mint Aqua) are part of a suite of works that was conceived since 2004 as a meditation on the recent technological past, evocative of proto-digital command lines or DOS systems of the early 1980s. The paintings are characterized by a deliberately superficial figuration composed of asymmetrical grids and monochrome backgrounds. In recent exhibitions, these paintings were countered by a monumental Desktop wall painting, presented on a large violet wall, in which a pictorial metaphor formats the procedural qualities of the graphical user interface. The pixelated floral Alias drawing, with its saturated aqua background, represents the small fragment of a second desktop, and casually refers to larger networked systems. (M.Z.)