Flatten Image/Picturesque, 2010
wood, turf, plants, artificial rock
installation view:
'Magic Show', Pumphouse Gallery, London

'The idea of the picturesque came up in the 18th century and is related to a certain type of landscape that would be a suitable subject for painting. It has always been associated with the concept of the English landscape garden that would provide an image of nature which is carefully staged. The visitor of the park was invited to find his own picturesque scenes - he'd become the 'picturesque-hunter'. The installation 'Flatten Image (Picturesque)' is a piece of cut-out landscape shaped in a rectangle if seen from a specific spot - just in front of Pumphouse Gallery in the middle of the pathway. It depicts a very ordinary park scene with lawn, bushes and a rock. From the sides the scenery is revealed as one can see the stage-like ramp and the rough interior construction of the artificial rock.   While the tradition of framing and by that controlling nature leads back to Romanticism I want to explore how digital imaging has taken influence to our perception. 'Flatten Image' is a tool in digital imaging to reduce a Photoshop file with different layers to a flat image. I think that our perception of reality is constructed from different layers of flat images that come from posters and signs in the urban space combined with real space. We are also influenced by the use of the computer screen which does not present one illusory space as in illusionist painting, but a variety of different windows that coexist equally at the same time in different layers.