Invitation

Media Release

Katrin von Maltzahn (Germany) & Jan Svenungsson (Sweden)
'Being the Mirror'

10th - 25th February 2007
Opening: Saturday 10th Feb 3-5pm

Ocular Lab presents a collaboration between two Berlin artists, Jan Svenungsson and Katrin von Maltzahn.

Jan Svenungsson: “Between two languages”
Invited to make an exhibition on the theme of “art + science”, Jan Svenungsson devised a "linguistic experiment":  Would it be possible to find a way to write a message in two languages simultaneously, in such a way that the hybrid message does not use more characters than for a message written in one single language? How much of the original complexity of the message can be retained?  Svenungsson devised two methods for the merging of two languages into one, using one method for a message written in English-German, and another for the same message written in Swedish–French. The final hybrid texts were presented each on five large format paintings.
Exhibited at Ocular Lab is the sketch version for the English–German version.
 
 
Katrin von Maltzahn: “Model drawings”
Katrin von Maltzahn took a computer apart and carefully studied each of its components. She concentrated on understanding the form of each part, first by making a "construction drawing", then by modelling it in clay, much enlarged. The absurdity of trying to decode the function of electronic components through a study of their shape, resembles the efforts of archaeologists trying to decipher the workings of a forgotten culture through its artefacts. There is no other class of objects in our culture that become ”fossilized” as fast as consumer electronics.
 Exhibited at Ocular Lab are the construction drawings for the clay objects,

In the second part of the exhibition each artist takes the other one’s work as his/her subject and translates it into new work:
Katrin converts Jan’s works into ASCII Code and Jan transforms Katrin’s drawings into architectural sketches.