Robilant+Voena is pleased to announce an artist's talk by Robert Zeller for his exhibit The Fragment is The Whole.
Zeller will discuss what he describes as the ‘collage aesthetic of appropriation’, which is a repurposing, appropriation of imagery and text out of their original use and context, first used by Dada artists Hannah Hoch, Max Ernst and others, and then taken up by the Surrealists.
This aesthetic is now so thoroughly prevalent in modern society that it is largely taken for granted. In the visual realm, the ‘montage’ effect of overlapping imagery has been used in film (commonly during flashback sequences), in advertising and in the 24/7 news cycle from CNN to Al Jazeera to sports highlights on ESPN. Artificial Intelligence, which is nothing if not an appropriation device, takes from many disparate sources and reassembles the information on demand of a prompt. The music industry thrives on sampling: the appropriating of a guitar riff, baseline or melody and repurposing it in a completely new work.
Zeller believes that collage is an incredible tool with which to reference art history in a contemporary context. In this lecture, Zeller will take the audience on a guided tour of the exhibit, and discuss the collage work on display. The narratives he uses involve the underworld (death) and memory, love, loss and spiritual awakenings. Sensual and alluring, the locales of these scenes are landscapes of the mind, the psyche, involving forms of Nature – trees, branches, roots – mixed with classical drawn or painted forms, namely portraits and nudes. In the smaller works, Zeller also includes collaged elements such as sheet music, gold leaf, stock reports, and poetry.
Limited space, RSVP essential. Reserve your spot here.