Paradoxical Objects

Flow State by Alex May features in Paradoxical Objects: Video Sculpture from 1968 to today alongside works by Nam June Paik, Tony Oursler, and many more.

Curated by Sue Bachmeier and Peggy Schoenegge
Presented by peer to space
Web Design by Camilla Murgia
Date of launch: September 24, 2021

About Paradoxical Objects

Screens dominate our everyday lives. Their use increased with new devices such as TVs, computers, laptops, smartphones, or tablets. On the flat surface, we access almost all aspects of our daily routine – we watch movies, read the latest news, communicate with friends, organize our work and experience art.

The screen has been an integral part of artistic practice since the late 1950s. At that time in contrast to today, the screen was not a flat but a bulky and heavy box. Expanded by the screen as object, video art was given a physical shape. The video works and the physical screen merge into one sculpture partly extended with additional artistic objects.

To space’s exhibition PARADOXICAL OBJECTS is dedicated to this special construct that combines video and sculpture, embracing the temporality and dynamic of video and the static nature of the screen. Fourty-six time-based works by international artists from 1968 to today highlights the technological development and variety of artistic uses of video sculptures over the last decades. Whether closed-circuit, single or multi-channel, screens create a physical entity to display of moving images. The exhibition’s artists explore the possibilities and conditions of this disparate unity.

Exhibition title refers to the artist Joan Truckenbrod’s publication The Paradoxical Object: Video Film Sculpture (2012), in which she analyzes the paradoxical state of video sculptures. In their hybrid form of the material and immaterial, physical and ephemeral, these works stretch the understanding of the definition of both sculpture and video art.

The Artists

  • Matej Al-Ali & Tomás Moravec
  • William Anastasi
  • Emmanuel Van der Auwera
  • Benton Bainbridge
  • Frank Balve
  • Gabriel Barcia Colombo
  • Kelsey S Brewer
  • Amy Cannestra
  • Yvon Chabrowski
  • James H. Connolly
  • Kevin Cooley
  • D’arcy Darimaz
  • Manjia Ebert
  • Daniel Everett
  • Exonemo
  • Stefano Fake
  • Ornella Fieres
  • Carla Gannis
  • James Alec Hardy
  • Claudia Hart
  • Faith Holland
  • Annebarbe Kau
  • Philipp Madörin
  • Marck
  • Alex May
  • Martina Menegon
  • Sali Müller
  • Juan Obando
  • Tony Oursler
  • Nam June Paik
  • Monica Panzarino
  • Taezoo Park
  • Björn Perborg
  • René Radomsky
  • Allison Maria Rodriguez
  • Ulrike Rosenbach
  • Nicolas Sassoon
  • Ira Schneider
  • Sid and Geri
  • Ivonne Thein
  • Joan Truckenbrod
  • Maria Vedder
  • Andy Vible
  • Wolf Vostell
  • Peter Welz
  • Xuan Ye

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