Untitled Detonations (2010)

Digital Composites 

 

english:

 

For the Untitled Detonation series I worked only with images found on the internet as well as with screenshots from videogames. All the images are digital composites.

 

I was primarily fascinated how more and more realistic the depiction of war scenarios in first person ego-shooter video games, such as Call of Duty or Battlefield, had become and I was interested in glorifying these.

Some of the used images are documents from weapon tests, some of them are made by soldiers on ground during Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) and in some cases actual ballistic detonations.

My idea was to put the composed explosions in an idyllic environment to somehow romanticize the cataclysmic event. I wanted to create a sort of Explosion Icons, asking the question of how breathtaking pictures and footage of war has to become in the future, so that we still pay attention to it.

 

Our reactions to these images tend to demonstrate the hyper reality that has been created by explosive media, which can contribute to causing a problematic way of how humans filter through future events.

I see the images as a critique on the over-sensationalized and commonality of the masses of graphic images found throughout popular culture.”

 

(press statement for the online issue of The NewYorker Dec. 9th 2013)

 

 

 

deutsch:

 

Für Untitled Detonation Serie arbeitet ich vorwiegend mit Bildmaterial aus dem Netz sowie mit Screenshots aus Videogames.

Alle Bilder der Serie sind digitale Kompositionen.

Mich faszinieren die zusehends realistischeren Abbildungen von Kriegssituationen in First-Person Ego-Shooter Videospielen wie z.B. Call of Duty oder Battlefield und mich interessiert die bildliche Glorifizierung dieser Entwicklung.

Zu dem verwendeten Bildmaterial gehören unter anderem Bilder von Waffentest und Munitionsvernichtungen (Explosive Ordnance Disposal EOD).

 

Mich interessiert der ästhetische Aspekt von Explosionen. Durch das zusätzliche einbinden dieses zerstörerischen Ereignisses in eine idyllische Umgebung möchte ich die Frage stellen, warum Bilder von Kriegssituationen zunehmend atemberaubender werden müssen um auch in Zukunft Beachtung zu erlangen. Mich interessiert der Diskurs über das wachsende Verlangen nach immer spektakuläreren Bildern aus Kriegsgebieten, sowie die Hyperrealität in Kriegssimulationen genannt Videospiel.