beyond the waterfall
2023
installation
video on LED translucent screen, soft sculpture, inflatables, led, fibreglass sculptures, mirror, sound, fog,
solo position in collaboration with Lea Neckel
“beyond the waterfall”
curated by Maria Venzl + Alfred Weidinger
OK Linz - Center for Contemporary Art, Linz, AT
exhibited at and commissioned by Oberösterreich Kultur GmbH
In their work beyond the waterfall, conventional notions of binarity are disrupted and the concept of fluidity is brought to the front. In the installation, the waterfall becomes a symbol for connecting and dissolving constructed dichotomies. The focus is on the concept of community. The potential of technology is used to grow beyond physical boundaries and generate a new idea of the future in collective consciousness.
Through the use of femme and queer signifiers and the reference to Donna Haraway's Cyborg Manifesto, the internet is rematerialized and used as a refuge for marginalized groups, especially queer community.
By deconstructing the boundaries between human / machine, gender binaries, self / other, liberation cannot be limited to the patriarchal framework of gender. Complex humanity and gender are not tangible but multi-layered, and technological progress continues to transcend traditional gender boundaries.
To truly transcend these boundaries in our thinking and discourse, we must open ourselves to new ways of conceptualizing and understanding the physical space of gender.
The spaces of the OK become an expanded virtual reality, immersed in the aesthetics of the digital subculture. Like a bubbling spring, it spills into the space, overflowing, overlapping and merging with its surroundings, like the layers of a Photoshop file.
Photos & Text by Hannah Neckel