Mysterium God´s Guardians
Posted: by http://deus-ex-machina.atspace.com/ in
Peter Martin / Manfred Kielnhofer
Vernissage sa. 4. oct. 7. pmGalerie
ARTPARK Lenaupark
CityHamerlingstrasse 42, 4020
LinzExhibition to 30. nov. 2008
A TRILOGY OF DESPAIR THAT LEADS TO HOPE / Stephen SokoloffIn the expressionistic paintings of Peter Martin, angels are no longer what they used to be. For ages they tried to watch over us, but humanity's evil ways finally drove them to despondency. Now they, like many of us, are burnt out and despairing.People no longer have anything they can believe in. Hi-tech and economic necessities have made morality and religion obsolete. The only beings that might be able to save us now are the guardians. These are human beings of different genders, ages, creeds and ethnicities we can all take part in the work of these premonitory spirits. Manfred Kielnhofer presents them as life-sized polyester cloaks. If we try to peer inside these garments, we discover only black emptiness. At three sites in the gallery “Art Park” the artist will station them in front of Martin's controversial canvases. These areas are intended to serve as stages for a spectacular installation on the evening of opening day Saturday October 4th, 2008. Angels are scheduled to descend from heaven to animate them on that occasion and I am sure you won't want to miss them. To the uninitiated they may look like white female nudes. Their skins will appear pale to show that they are bloodless. Streams of the red fluid that flows through our veins will, however, adorn their bodies. In taking us step-by-step down the road from doubt to despair to death and confronting us with shocking nudes the artists do not aim at arousing feelings of profound disgust. Rather they hope to steel us with the resolve to persist in performing positive deeds and never to close our eyes to evil.