›APPROPRECIATION‹ 25/03/2023—10/06/2023

• Jirka Pfahl

Constance 25/03/2023—10/06/2023

With the solo exhibition ›Appropreciation‹, the Lachenmann Art gallery in Konstanz is once again presenting the unique works of Jirka Pfahl. Pfahl, born in Wurzen in 1976, has proven himself to be a brilliant and astute artist. He has been represented by the gallery since Lachenmann Art was founded and is undisputedly considered part of the innovative spirit of the contemporary art scene. Jirka Pfahl's works are rigorous, conceptual, but always playful and always refer to traditional art, which he intensively combines with the present in his works.

The title of the exhibition is the artist's joy in wordplay. The English verb "to appreciate" is translated as "to know how to appreciate something" or "to know how to value it". In contemporary art, "appropriation" or "taking possession" refers to a conceptual artistic approach in which artists consciously refer to concepts that already exist. The title of the exhibition is composed of these two nouns, "appreciation" and "appropriation", as the neologism "Appropreciation".

The Leipzig artist's entire oeuvre repeatedly displays moments of appropriation art. However, the act of quoting itself must be understood as an artistic act and thus as art. Jirka Pfahl's works are part of a permanent dualism of original and copy, analogue and digital. This is also the case in the exhibition ›Appropreciation‹, which primarily presents an installation consisting of old tube televisions. The artist plays digital modifications of his analogue, manually made paper folds onto these, which unfold their typical pyramidal shapes through slits. On the cathode tubes, a digital signal from an algorithm is converted into an analogue signal, but how this data is processed remains hidden. The 90s technology of the installation works ›BruteForceVintage‹ is confronted with current programming language and thus shows a further development of Jirka Pfahl's engagement in the field between analogue and digital, original and copy. The artist translates the analogue concepts of his works into the digital space and thus creates completely new approaches in the form of NFTs that fit into a contemporary visual language.

The brute force method, which gives this work its title, is used in computer science, cryptology and game theory. It describes the simplest approach to finding a solution to an algorithmic problem: all possible cases are tried out. Based on this method, Pfahl's haptic folds in space are constantly regenerated according to a mathematical-logical order and unfold their unmistakable beauty.

In these works of art, the constant use of line is combined with the appearance of light and shadow. They attract the viewer's gaze and thereby create a moment of standstill in time. Geometric shapes suggest infinite variations of a leitmotif that is created by the artist's hand and subjected to an order. What at first glance appears to be chaotic arrangements reveals its structure the moment the relationships between the individual elements of the overall object become clear to the viewer. The artist acts as a creator, sets the rules of order and relationship between those elements and determines the sequence and positions that ultimately create an autonomous overall picture.

Jirka Pfahl makes both materials and concepts her own and re-actualizes them in surprising, novel ways. Both the appreciation for complex artistic approaches and their appropriation can be discovered in this exhibition ›Appropreciation‹ and stimulate new thought processes.

Installation views: Credits Eric Tschernow