Heimo Zobernig, »Infolounge, Biennale of Sydney 2004 [detail]«, 2018

Infolounge, Biennale of Sydney 2004 [detail], 2018
C-Print
42.5 x 30 cm
Edition of 30 + 10 AP, signed on back, numbered

This C-print brings back an image originally used for a foldout poster in the first-ever issue of Spike; it inaugurates a new series of editions from artists who have been affiliated with Spike over its fourteen-year history.

The image shows a close-up of a work that Heimo Zobernig (*1958, Austria) created for the 2004 Sydney Biennale and reflects the artist’s ongoing investigations of the increasing power of language over the visual since Minimalism. With a stark arrangement of cheaply constructed tables and benches, the room offered visitors a space to read catalogues and related material about the exhibition. But this was not the enlightened reading room of Rodchenko’s Workers Club, and there was too much ironic detachment for relational aesthetics. Rather – as this photograph eloquently conveys – the space evoked the oppressive surveillance apparatus of a high-security prison.

Recent solo exhibitions of his work have taken place at Galerie Bärbel Grässlin, Frankfurt am Main (2022); Mumok, Vienna (2021); Galerie Meyer Kainer (2020); Galerie Johann Widauer, Innsbruck and Simon Lee Gallery, Hong Kong (both 2019). Heimo Zobernig lives in Vienna. 

Read a portrait of Heimo Zobernig in Issue #43, available here.