Yoshi Abe At Night circa 2001"Simplicity is an appreciation of scenes or objects as ends in themselves. Not as anything symbolic, or literary, but simply as things-in-themselves. Everything has its own nature, its integrity [...] If art is the selective recreation of reality according to the artist’s own value judgements, then one must have the ability to see that which is worth recreating. While random objects, scenes, and events crowd out the vision of the artist, and impose themselves on the viewer, the ability to single out the important– to home in on it – is what singles out the artist as blessed with a unique ability" -Yoshi Abe
Olaf Nicolai, La Lotta, 2006. The Sander Collection, Courtesy Galerie EIGEN + ART Leipzig/Berlin, Foto: Uwe Walter, Berlin
"Xerox Astronomy and the Nebulous Object-Image Archive is an installation in two parts: 1) a central kinetic sculpture and 2) the presentation of the image archive the sculpture produces. The first part places an office photocopier at the center of a mechanical model of the universe. In this model, a group of desklamp-esque arms orbit robotically, maneuvering light sources above the bed of the copier, the system's observation and recording device. By continually documenting, through photocopies, the paths of the orbiting objects, the copier produces images suggestive both of various forms of scientific vision (astrophotography, sonography, etc) and paranormal/hoax photography. The sculpture at once models the movements of distant bodies and presents itself as the the primary object of observation, creating a self-reflexive, self-imaging media production system. Its form refers to pre-industrial astronomic models, and the incorporation of office aesthetics is intended to evoke the "informational everyman-ism" typified by amateur astronomy, paranormal enthusiasts, and internet DIY culture. "
