RAFAËL ROZENDAAL – PERFECT VACUUM
Opening Friday 17/9, 18-20 pm
Galleri Pictura, Svartbrödersgatan 3, Lund, Sweden
September 18 – October 9
Curated by Johanna Bergmark Rafaël Rozendaal creates stylistically simple animations which often tend to have subtle undertones of melancholy and humor. While disarmingly simple in design, many of Rafaël Rozendaal’s pieces unfold in complexity through their boldness of concept. Many of the works challenge the viewers initial response; repetitative patterns and images give way to more complex relationships and a meditative awareness. Through deceptively modest interactions using only the mouse, the viewer can expand many of the pieces and affect the shape and course of events. Rozendaal’s work often twists banal situations like dropping a stone into an endless hole or emptying a roll of toilet paper. Travel on a deserted road, turn right or left. Which way you choose doesn’t really matter, the road leads nowhere. The artist sees the computer not only as a tool, but as an actual place that exists in parallel with the material world. A place somewhere between fantasy and reality. Inaccessible, but infinite. The computer screen becomes a window that explore and opens up new ways to represent the outside world. Images of the physical world are mediated through Rozendaal’s work to question viewers perceptions and examination the perfunctory act of clicking your way through a work of art or from website to website. Drawing attention to the users active participation and physical presence, the mouse and keyboard become extensions of your own body and the works consolidate the viewers presence into a position in his virtual world. Rafaël Rozendaal does not tell stories or claim to communicate with the viewer, instead he hopes to trigger ideas or feelings. He wants them to be ”independent entities that are part of peoples lives and can be used or seen in any way. Like having a tree in your garden.” Galleri Pictura will display an installation consisting of the work ‘Hybrid Moment’ and drawings.
Rafaël Rozendaal (b. 1980) was born and raised in the Netherlands but has lived and held exhibitions all over the world. Los Angeles, Barcelona, Tokyo and London amongst others. He creates websites as art pieces and sells their domains as collectibles. Perfect Vacuum at Galleri Pictura is his first exhibition in Sweden. The exhibition is a collaboration with Art on Network and part in Full Pull ’10. With support from Royal Netherlands Embassy.
