Gerwald Rockenschaub

Six animations, 2002

The video installation Six animations translates a constructive and synthetic pictorial language into colorfully ‘poppy’ computer animations. The standardized, static compositional principle of abstraction are animated, refracted by means of combination and variation and transferred into a crossover of graphics and techno-music. Rockenschaub’s Six animations makes clear how strongly the pictorial reservoir of art has now been taken over by the mass media. Constantly improving technical resources lead to ever more perfect products for which art history is only the aesthetic of goods. The abstract and geometrical art of the 20^th century becomes a model supplier for fashion, graphics, and design, and enjoys a great deal of popularity, but paradoxically it remains alien to most people as art. Thus it is clear only in the context of minimalist tradition that the reduced form of the video installation not only reflects the world-standard shop design from Sony to Prada, but has its origins in Minimal Art sculptures.