Oliver Laric - Versions (2009)

Screen shot from Versions 2009,

Four Channel Video, 6.25

Starting in 2009 Versions by Oliver Laric is a series of three video works presenting a body of research on appropriation, the remix and the hybrid. Comprised of theoretical, thematic and aesthetic links between otherwise disparate subjects, Laric uses the dialogue in the films to describe notions of authenticity in relation to the image. 

The 2009 video starts with a widely broadcasted image published by an Iranian revolutionary group in 2008 (see above). Later proved to be a fake, the image then became the source of mass manipulation by anonymous authors and published widely online. Laric uses this example alongside others to explore historical and contemporary ideas of image hierarchies. 

In tune with Larics repeated interests on ideas of permanence, value and semblance, these works also express the problematized relationship between media and simulation. Although not a new topic, Larics work suggests that our perceptions of this has been warped further by our ability to equally produce as well as consume imagery online.

A video of the work can be found here.

Harun Farocki - War At A Distance

Harun Farocki War At A Distance

2003

(video, 54 mins, still)

German filmmaker and video-installation artist Harun Farocki's War at a Distance is an experimental film that examines the role of images in contemporary warfare and industry. Farocki's style is often meditative and slow, its power lies in subtly leading towards conclusions without explicitly taking a position. 

Here the artist traces lines that link the production of modern day industry to the destruction of modern day warfare via a consideration of automation and a removal of direct human engagement. The picture of global economics that he paints is a complex and multi-faceted one where the by-products of war enter into circulation in consumer markets.

The film examines the history of missile-guidance systems from the Second World War onwards. Farocki's ongoing engagement with questions around the power, function and potential of the image focusses in on the increasing lack of distinction between CGI and real-life footage. He traces this back to the early 90s and the news coverage of the Gulf War noting a shift between moving image as fact or record to it's newer role as a productive force in its own right.

Central to Farocki's project is a consideration of different types of image production; in particular a fascination with images that are made for mechanical eyes rather than those of humans. 

View a short clip here.

Josephine Meckseper - Cobra

Josephine Meckseper - Cobra, 2012

Meckseper's work idealizes political and economic positions by appropriating both consumerist and revolutionary tropes. Slick presentation of ready-made objects and commodities act as symbols of a ruthless capitalist economy.

Regularly focusing on war and the oil industry in the US, Meckseper's film 0% Down refers explicitly to the militaristic advertising rhetoric and crude sales tactics used by the automobile industry to sell high performance cars. Mecksepers work presents itself as highly commodified polished objects, however it also acts to subvert the consumerist agenda often at stake with many art practices.

"The work equally reflects the role of the artist in our current consumer society. How does one reconcile the symbolic and the monetary value of cultural production? How does one make visible real economic and political realities without just mimicking them? Is there really still a subculture or subversiveness in art? This is the narrative behind the recent display sculptures" - Josephine Meckseper

Viper, 2009