Parallel Universe

Parallel Universe #2

The section to the left in yellow got exposed to light when I put the cartridge into the camera, indicating that this was the 'warm up picture' I took when starting the portrait session with Avida on a Sunday in November 2012.  What strikes me is that the image of the 'parallel' universes (in fact the search results I got when using Google Images to look for the term 'universe') made it onto the film in its entirety.  I cannot explain how this is possible.

 

Blue Planets

Gottfried is at eye level with our planetary system as he stares directly into the 'sun'.  Which brings me back to Nicolaus Copernicus (see my blog post 'warszawawarsaw'), the first man to present a fully predictive mathematical model of a heliocentric system.

The Dice Of Destiny

Seeing the poker dice in my hand ending up in the same picture as Avida's little boy made me wonder about the extent to which and by what forces our lives are predetermined and whether there is something like a 'free will'.

 

The Man-Machine (Or: A Clockwork Orange)

Speaking of free will: In the 1960s Benjamin Libet conducted experiments on consciousness which seemed to demonstrate that supposedly conscious decisions are already settled before we become aware of them (to find out more about this experiment click here).

Parallel Universe #5

Gottfried looks at the light in his kitchen which again is reflected in the window.  All that blends with a famous fractal also known as the ‘Mandelbrot-Set’. Fractals are visual representations of the mathematics that defines the physical universe.

 Parallel Universe #4

A double exposure of Avida and an explosion-like image I found on the web make for a psychedelic and almost symmetrical result - thanks to Avida's ability to keep her smile for two consecutive photos.

The Red Thread Of Destiny

Shoppers in the mall at Vienna's 'Westbahnhof' superimpose yet another "Mandelbrot set".  The mathematician Benoît B. Mandelbrot was born in Warsaw and studied in Paris, which makes for a great link between my blogs, because the former city was the setting of my blog post 'warszawawarsaw' while the latter will play a crucial role in one of my next posts :-)

First IOTS Exhibition!

In general I would say that I am an impatient person, but this time things happened faster than I expected.  I hadn't even started contemplating the possibility of publicly showing my "Images Of The Subconscious" when in November I was asked by artist-friend Petronilla Hohenwarter and her partner Nigel Stonham whether I was interested in having some of my pictures displayed as part of an exhibition called "PLAYGROUND 7" at "artspace 191" in Vienna.  

I immediately agreed.

One day before the start of the exhibition Wolfgang, an old friend of mine who writes for Austrian newspaper "Die Presse" asked me per SMS to "see page 31" of their Saturday edition.  When he sends me such a message my initial guess is that he wants to draw my attention to an article he wrote or an interview he gave, e.g. about the 1982 Falkland war, or about the hopelessly tasteless "Fete Blanche" in the South of Austria where everyone is supposed to be dressed entirely in white and where one could only imagine what the reaction of a guest would be like if his or her clothes were stained e.g. with drops of Styrian pumpkin seed oil (admittedly I share Wolfgang's doubts about this ultra-posh event).  "D'accord" I replied and went to buy the newspaper.

 

When I finally got the "Presse" and opened it on page 31, I had to rub my eyes in disbelief, for what Wolfgang had written about was the exhibition at "artspace 191" - as always in his own unique style and featuring "Triple Word Score", one of my "images of the subconcious" which blends a portrait of his son Max with an old Scrabble board.

 

 

The exhibition of my work alongside those of six other artists went very well, people seemed to like the exhibits, asked about my technique and gave me very interesting and highly creative interpretations of what they were seeing in those images. 

At artspace 191, Nina managed to take an almost surrealistic picture of a man looking at the exhibits while his head appears to get sucked in by the wall.

Here Nina is having a chat with poet Hannes Kirschbaum, a good friend of ours.

Nina took this picture of me just before we were leaving the exhibition.  I guess the satisfaction I felt was written in my face  :-)  

I would like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to everyone - especially my friends - who took their time to pay a visit to artspace 191 between December 16 and 18, to Petronilla and Nigel for giving me this extraordinary opportunity, and last but not least to Nina, for being such a wonderful wife and, well... "manager"! 

Sending out season's greetings to everyone!

warszawawarsaw

A few weeks back I felt like my life had become a monotonous routine.  I needed new impressions.  So when Nina informed me that she had to go to Warsaw for a workshop my brain started working.  Warsaw - could that be a place worth visiting?  What did I know about the capital of Poland?  Very little.  The first things that came to mind were the "Warsaw Ghetto Boy" and the iconic photograph taken in 1970 of German Chancellor Willi Brandt kneeling down in front of a monument to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

And then the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship...

Anything else?  Not really.  "Shame on me", I thought.  So I spent an hour "virtually exploring" the Polish capital using Google Earth. The next day I bought a travel guide.  Four days later Nina and I were on a train to Warsaw. It was Friday night, the trip would last 8 hours. Nina's workshop was due to start on Monday, my train back to Vienna was scheduled to leave on sunday evening already.  That left us with roughly 36 hours to explore the city.

warszawawarsaw

Modern buildings right next to the Warsaw Central railway station ("Warszawa Centralna") blend with a green vertical line, in fact the divide between two other, for some obscure reason totally invisible pictures.

Zeberka

As far as I can tell the only inedible thing in this picture is my train ticket from Vienna to Warsaw :-)

  

Here & There

Buildings and a stone-surfaced path with people walking blend into something almost esoteric.

 

 His Father Was A Merchant From Kraków

The Nicolaus Copernicus Monument in front of the "Staszic Palace" (the seat of the Polish Academy of Sciences) superimposes two pictures of buildings in the center of Warsaw.  

 Rycerska

Two images - both taken in the Old Town ("Stare Miasto") - together create a surreal street.

 

Poland Loves One Direction

Polish fans of English-Irish boy band "One Direction" almost seem to be standing on the stairs in the Zachęta National Gallery of Art.

 

The Fate Of Man Lies In Woman's Hands

An upside down picture of soldiers marching on the Polish National Independence Day ("Narodowe Święto Niepodległości") blends with an image of a female statue holding a football in front of the Palace of Culture and Science ("Pałac Kultury i Nauki").

 

Time Is Marching Out

An old station clock at the Railway Museum ("Muzeum Kolejnictwa w Warszawie") shares the space with yet more soldiers that marched the streets of Warsaw on November 11, the Polish National Independence Day.

  

 Blurred Visions Of Our Past

An old TV exhibited in the Museum of Technology ("Muzeum Techniki") merges with a slanted Palace of Culture and Science, the building which in fact hosts that museum.