2020
Acrylic on PET-G plastic,
60 × 77 cm
Carl-Robert Kagge's solo exhibition "Four-Grain Image" is a site-specific work inspired by the location of Vitriingalerii, displaying a hauntological image of Instagram's infinite database. Replacing the glass walls of the gallery with a canvas of bent plastic, Kagge continues developing his original artistic technique.
The title of the show refers to the manual technique the artist uses to apply the motifs onto plastic, silkscreen printing. On the other hand, this marks the process an image uploaded to the internet goes through before reaching the viewer: mutations on the screen used to view the image.
Carl-Robert Kagge is a painter, focusing on images found on social media and their materialisations in physical space. The artist's original technique consists of silkscreen printing and applying the images on heat-shaped plastic. Gathering his visual material on various online platforms, Kagge creates a subjective archive of past and present that has not much to do with collectively perceived space of reality. Using already existing visual material, the artist composes a unique field of images that does not always comply with straightforward categorisation. Kagge skilfully navigates multiple fields: painting, printing, design, internet culture, technology, and graffiti. Looking at Kagge's work on computer screen, it may resemble Photoshop comps, however, exhibited in physical space we see painting-hybrids, blurred photos abstracted until they become unrecognisable. A similar effect occurs when phones fail to load Instagram photos in full resolution due to slow internet connection. All of this leads the viewer to be confronted with hyper-physicality: a mix of virtual and material shaped into something almost haunting. Kagge's work skilfully reflects a state increasingly taking hold of people – a time and space, where technology has become a permanent artificial limb and where it has become almost impossible to distinguish between the real and the simulated.
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Exhibited at Vitriingalerii, Tallinn, Põhja pst 35
Curator: Lilian Hiob
14 August 2020 – 7 September 2020
Text: Lilian Hiob
Photos: Kristina Õllek
Techinal assistance: Oliver Kadakas
2019
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Exhibited at Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe, Germany
02.02.–09.02.2019
Drained Net
2018
Acrylic and spray on plexiglass,
five paintings, 61 × 120 cm
Drained Net series depicts the situation where the perceived image of the screen merges into the material of the device. An underlying structure of images made visible, now working as a material or texture. Mobile screen acting as a sieve, blending visuals together. Greasy fingers, food scraps, and traces of wear on the screen break the boundary between real and depicted materials.
These paintings are momentary representations of ongoing processes, abstractions of human interaction with their personal devices. Captures of different layers and surfaces that appear, while we are too busy scrolling through the endless streams of information.
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Exhibited at University of Applied Sciences in Tallinn, Estonia
17.09–07.11.2018
2018
Acrylic and spray on plexiglass,
five paintings, 61 × 120 cm
Drained Net series depicts the situation where the perceived image of the screen merges into the material of the device. An underlying structure of images made visible, now working as a material or texture. Mobile screen acting as a sieve, blending visuals together. Greasy fingers, food scraps, and traces of wear on the screen break the boundary between real and depicted materials.
These paintings are momentary representations of ongoing processes, abstractions of human interaction with their personal devices. Captures of different layers and surfaces that appear, while we are too busy scrolling through the endless streams of information.
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Exhibited at University of Applied Sciences in Tallinn, Estonia
17.09–07.11.2018
Ways of Mapping
2018
Installation, 150 × 100 × 170 cm
Videomapping 3’, loop
Ways of Mapping is a site-specific installation that depicts the relationship between real and virtual objects. It interprets satellite images to draw attention to the ways new technologies alter our perception of time and space. Translating image into three-dimensional setting and converting it back into flat surface dissolves the meaning of reality.
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Part of group exhibition “Mindmapping”
at Vaal Gallery in Tallinn, Estonia
Curators: Kristi Kongi and Merike Estna
17.08.–15.09.2018
Photos: Stanislav Stepaško and Solveig Lill
2018
Installation, 150 × 100 × 170 cm
Videomapping 3’, loop
Ways of Mapping is a site-specific installation that depicts the relationship between real and virtual objects. It interprets satellite images to draw attention to the ways new technologies alter our perception of time and space. Translating image into three-dimensional setting and converting it back into flat surface dissolves the meaning of reality.
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Part of group exhibition “Mindmapping”
at Vaal Gallery in Tallinn, Estonia
Curators: Kristi Kongi and Merike Estna
17.08.–15.09.2018
Photos: Stanislav Stepaško and Solveig Lill
Picture Stumbled In Its Title
2018
Aerosol, oil and acrylic on canvas
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Work made together with
Mart Vainre for Mart Vainre’s exhibition
“Self-Contained Pictures” at Hobusepea Gallery
07.11.2018–26.11.2018
Photos: Anu Vahtra
2018
Aerosol, oil and acrylic on canvas
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Work made together with
Mart Vainre for Mart Vainre’s exhibition
“Self-Contained Pictures” at Hobusepea Gallery
07.11.2018–26.11.2018
Photos: Anu Vahtra
