translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville,
281111: CharimGalerie Edgar Honetschläger
Charim Galerie
Edgar Honetschläger
15.11.11 – 21.01.12
Of artistic pitfalls
Edgar Honetschläger, born 1963, has been living in Japan for many years and concentrates on Japanese culture in his work (paintings, film, music). The gallery is currently presenting large-format canvases, e.g. rudimentary sketches of a “Shinto priest procession”. What is barely visible to start with practically disappears on the white background. Priests standing in a row only take up a minimal amount of space on the canvas and are dominated by the colour white surrounding them, and a sea of white also dominates a group of trees centred on a hill.
Honetschläger argues that the emptiness in his paintings refers to the two-dimensionality of Japanese painting omitting the conventional three-dimensionality of European art. And he believes that Asian art creates space through omission. Yet these works leave the impression that an artist is taking things too easy. He seems to imitate Japanese forms of art without breathing life into them. And one questions why these small works need formats of 135 x 290 meters.
Honetschläger is definitely more credible with his four-minute video-loop titled “When will we allow ourselves to cry about earth”. The video shows underwater images, hands intertwined, faces decorated by a kind of tattoo and trickling sand, ultimately replaced by trickling dots on the monitor. The protagonist’s face loses itself in thousands of dots. All this is accompanied by grinding noises, authentically accentuating the Fukushima tragedy. This is clearly Honetschläger’s strongest metier.
By Susanne Rohringer
CharimGalerie
1010 Vienna, Dorotheergasse 12
Tel: +43 1 512 09 15
Fax: +43 1 512 09 15 – 50
Email: info@charimgalerie.at
http://www.charimgalerie.at
Opening hours: Tue – Fri 11 – 18 hours, Sat 11 – 14 hours
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281111
Charim Galerie
1010 Wien, Dorotheergasse 12
Tel: +43 1 512 09 15, Fax: +43 1 512 09 15 50
Email: info@charimgalerie.at
http://www.charimgalerie.at
Öffnungszeiten: Di-Fr: 11-18h
Sa: 11-14h
Charim Galerie
1010 Wien, Dorotheergasse 12
Tel: +43 1 512 09 15, Fax: +43 1 512 09 15 50
Email: info@charimgalerie.at
http://www.charimgalerie.at
Öffnungszeiten: Di-Fr: 11-18h
Sa: 11-14h