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Exhibition at  I Space gallery, Chicago                       Smaller view

October 13 - November 18  2000

Opening reception  on Friday, October 13  from 5 - 7 pm.

Gallery hours are Tuesday - Saturday, 11 - 5

Exhibition view:  Slate I,  II, III & IV
Digital prints, resin and acrylic paint on canvas

Press Release

I Space
230 West Superior                               tel.: # 312 587 9976
Second Floor
Chicago, Illinois                                 email: mantonak@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu
IL 60610
USA

Stephan Hausmeister focuses on visual icons reflecting certain aspects
of western industrial culture and society.

For this exhibition his chosen icon is a child's "magic slate" scanned into
the computer and enlarged to billboard format. Printed as a series, each carries
a different handwritten message, statement or commandment of cultural, political
or religious content.

For example Adolf Hitler's dedication, originally carved in marble for 'Das Haus der
Deutschen Kunst' (House of the German Art) in Munich, translated: "No People live
longer than the Documents of their Culture" gets at once an ambigious and
interchangeable sound by being depicted on the actual child's magic slate
with it's distinctive feature of only being able to hold an image or message for a very
short period of time.

Haumeister makes the intentions of these works clear in the following statement:

"The visual messages we receive nowadays through television or the Internet
feel transient and seem to be hanging in the air, broadcasted from no
distinguishable location, by no distinguishable author. I want these paintings
to operate in that same ether and to reflect the character of visual
information in the 21st Century. Phrases, slogans, opinions, culture and
ideologies are flickering in neon pink and like on a computer or magic slate
they can be wiped out in a moment only to be replaced by something else."  

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