Manfred Naescher

Afterimages for Alfred Kubin, 6 Drawings in 3 Black Boxes (MDF, stained black), 2 Books, 7 Booklets, Dimensions Variable, 2015, Exhibition View The Grass Is Always Greener On The Other Side, curated by Kunstverein Schichtwechsel at Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz, 2015

Stones, Flowers, Animals and People (Afterimages for Alfred Kubin; Black Box 1), Image 1 of 2 in Two-Sided Black Box (Stained MDF, 60 x 30 x 45 cm), Image Dimensions 30 x 45 cm, Watercolor and Colored Pencil on Fabriano Paper, 2015

Fabulous, Untold Wealth (Afterimages for Alfred Kubin; Black Box 1), Image 2 of 2 in Two-Sided Black Box (Stained MDF, 60 x 30 x 45 cm), Image Dimensions 30 x 45 cm, Watercolor and Colored Pencil on Fabriano Paper, 2015

Remarkable, Extraordinary (Afterimages for Alfred Kubin; Black Box 2), Image 1 of 2 in Two-Sided Black Box (Stained MDF, 40 x 20 x 30 cm), Image Dimensions 20 x 30 cm, Watercolor and Colored Pencil on Fabriano Paper, 2015

All Sorts of Problems (Afterimages for Alfred Kubin; Black Box 2), Image 2 of 2 in Two-Sided Black Box (Stained MDF, 40 x 20 x 30 cm), Image Dimensions 20 x 30 cm, Watercolor and Colored Pencil on Fabriano Paper, 2015

Hostilities Were Declared (Afterimages for Alfred Kubin; Black Box 3), Image 1 of 2 in Two-Sided Black Box (Stained MDF, 20 x 10 x 15 cm), Image Dimensions 10 x 15 cm, Watercolor and Colored Pencil on Fabriano Paper, 2015

For the Sake of Peace (Afterimages for Alfred Kubin; Black Box 3), Image 2 of 2 in Two-Sided Black Box (Stained MDF, 20 x 10 x 15 cm), Image Dimensions 10 x 15 cm, Watercolor and Colored Pencil on Fabriano Paper, 2015

On Afterimages for Alfred Kubin

The nucleus of the installation is Kubin’s novel The Other Side from 1909, the fictional memoirs of an artist who moves from a big city to a microstate. The microstate - the Dream Land - soon devolves into an increasingly apocalyptic scenario, but the protagonist survives, and, in a mental institution, he writes down his memories of the other side. For this installation, I’m using two types of containers for memory, the book and the black box (a recording device in airplanes). After a disaster, once a black box is retrieved, its contents are analyzed - mirroring, here, the viewer’s interpretation of the work as it is encountered in the context of the exhibition. The black boxes in the installation contain watercolors that are made with complementary colors like the ones used for creating afterimage effects. Here, I’m less interested in the optical phenomenon as such, but more in the idea of the afterimage: The afterimage is contained within the image, just as the other side is necessarily contained within this side. The other side, in its pure form, only really exists on this side, it is a projected fiction. The moment we reach the other side, it will disintegrate.

Afterimages for Alfred Kubin, Black Box 1, Exhibition View The Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side, curated by Kunstverein Schichtwechsel at Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, 2015