Ulrike Königshofer. Dinge, die andere Dinge sind

04–12–10–01-2015
Ulrike Königshofer
Dinge, die andere Dinge sind

Opening: Dec 03, 2015, 6pm
Artist talk & Fanzine presentation: Jan 07, 2016, 6pm

The exhibition „Dinge, die andere Dinge sind" by the artist Ulrike Königshofer (born 1981 in Koglhof, lives in Vienna) explores processes of absorbing, analysing, and assimilating information about the world and its force of expression. For this exploration, Königshofer has selected the photographic image and analyses the represenative belief in perception to which each photograph lays claim, despite being based on physical processes and certainly not representing a neutral medium. The works shown in the exhibition show this medium outside of its documentary function of recording bygone reality. Increasingly, they stage its materiality in dialogue with natural phenomena: the photographs in Königshofer’s work series “80° Celsius” were for instance solely created by exposing negatives to temperature variations. "In Sechs Sekunden Mondlicht," the artist attempts to capture moonlight by having it shine on the photographic paper. Her "Sonnenlichtaufzeichnungen," in turn, makes it possible for a picture of the sun to leave traces etched into paper. In her current piece, "Wellenübersetzer," she gives rise to perceptually disconcerting irritations through pictures of waves of water bobbing up and down translated into a purely informational signals. The water waves are relayed as sound waves and generate noise similar to that of water swishing, yet not longer derived from an original acoustic symbol. Directly comparable in terms of approach is the work wind, recorded on 27.10.2015, also shown in „Dinge, die andere Dinge sind," where the strength of wind is recorded on a certain day this year using a windmill fitted with a dynamo. The logged motion pulses are then intensified and played back again 1:1 using a fan. So drifting through the exhibition is the illusion of an ability to exactly reproduce the wind intensity of a former place in time.

The artistic practice of Ulrike Königshofer juxtaposes aesthetic theories and the concept of experience, with the triadic relationship between the artistic object, the viewer’s perception, and the artist’s own point of departure in artistic production playing a decisive role: “My works since 2010 deal with the unique perspective of the self—the utter alterity to the ‘outside world’ which is the basis for all experience. And it is this seclusion in particular, this subjective finality of one’s own sentiments and perceptions, that make it both exciting and difficult to question this oneself. The works’ main area of interest lies in perception as a process that makes the world accessible to us, but whose veracity cannot be gauged because it is impossible to move out of this perceptual realm—viewing is not feasible without perception.”