‘WORD!’ | solo Septemeber 2024 @franktaalgalerie
Manfred Peckl is an artist who works with many different methods and media. Equally known for his wild performances, his elaborate collages, his texts, music and sculptures or his play with identities, Peckl now surprises with his first cycle of paintings in 30 years.
WHAT?
ACID PORN JAZZ FUCK WOOD SHIT FACT HYMN
HOAX MOON SOLD NUDE CASH OBEY
SAND CLAY STOP SOUL POEM ECHO HYPE VIVA
OLD NEW GAY SEA HOW SEX POP WHY RED
NO ME HI WE
Manfred Peckl paints the world with words. The designation of classical art historical subjects such as NUDE for the nude, PORN or SEX for the sexual act, ME for the self-portrait, WE for a group picture or SEA for a scenery are juxtaposed with various other abstract and concrete terms such as STOP, FACT, JAZZ or FUCK that have become images of their own concepts. Pictures of their significance, the words, repeatedly painted transparent in multi-colored overlapping circles, at the same time release associations from the collective visual memory. We are confronted with the question of the designation and the designated. Repetition is a principle of memorizing and letting go in equal measure. Both lead to new insights, to new images. Their forms, each with specific internal orders, arise from the ambivalence of signs and interstices, the painted and the unpainted, the spoken and the unspoken. Read between the lines! It is a game with different levels. In some cases, the notion of the picture is only perceived partially at first.
Only at second glance, for example, does ASH become CASH, HIT become SHIT or AND become SAND The reduction to four letters per word is based on the four sides of the square, the four corners, the four cardinal points and is manifested in the images through the motif of the cross. The pictures with three-letter words radiate in three directions per color, the pictures with two-letter words look in two directions per color. The words meander concentrically from rays to circles in squares. Speed, the impression of a rotating movement in many pictures, creates a kaleidoscope in the large ensemble.
- Dr. Nackelpemf, theoretician and curator