Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
The Retinal Art Revisited: Story of the Eye series consists of 15 digitally assisted paintings (10 of which have
accompanying videos). A group of paintings portray the retina of human eyes bracketed and centred by paintings-
animations that investigate the lips of the human rectum. With the eye as the highest input valve on the human
desiring-machine 1and the rectum the lowest, Joseph Nechvatal plays with the possibility of harmonizing them. The
videos that are joined with paintings show a projection of the computer virus eating the same image that is on the
painting. This approach is relatively new, with a progenitor work exhibited in 2004 at the Digital Sublime show at
MOCA in Taipei.
Joseph Nechvatal reminds us of (and opposes at the same time) Marcel Duchamps prejudice that visual art (and
beauty in general) cannot (or shouldnt) arouse intellectual dialogue between the artist and the spectator. Also, by
associating paintings with videos, he evokes another question that seems to be at the core of this new body of work:
On a planet that is increasingly technologically linked and globally mediated, how might visual noises break and
reconnect in distinctive and productive ways within practices located in the world of art and thought? The notion of
noise that not only strengthens unique personal powers of imagination and critical thinking through a beautiful self-
perception but also a source of creation in itself is a key element in the understanding of the new series of works
exhibited at Galerie Jean-Luc & Takako Richard.
Joseph Nechvatals work is in many major private and institutional collections around the world. An interview of the
artist will accompany the exhibition.
1
All quotes are taken from Joseph Nechvatals interview by Galerie Jean-Luc & Takako Richard, 2010, available
in French and English at the gallery.