
www.castyourart.com (english version) www.castyourart.com (german version) In 1908, Adolf Loos published a polemic modern architecture pamphlet titled Ornament and Crime. Ornamentation, he argues, is redundant, cost-intensive kitschy decoration, and an expression of the cultural backwardness which can be found in primitive cultures, and which is not representative of modern man. The barbarian era, the architect concludes, is finally past. In the work of artists such as Adriana Czernin, Brigitte Kowanz, Sarah Morris, Raqib Shaw, Aisha Khalid, Mona Hatoum or Parastou Forouhar, ornamentation is given a voice on different levels, such as physicality, eros, violence, cultural differences, and the rhythms of modern and traditional life, and reveals its seductive power to touch upon deeper layers that lie behind the wall of the abstract beauty of the ornament. What these artists all share is their approach of use this seductive power of ornamental beauty with a very clear intention in mind. In this exhibition, ornamentation emerges not as a hollow decoration, but rather as an allegory of the collective modern existence within mass society, and the artists use the ornament as a powerful tool for critique and rebellion. Its beauty attracts the attention of the viewers. It encourages them to look closer, in order to expose collective patterns of social standardization, brutality, and suppression of otherness in its details. According to Kracauer, People who are separated from the <b>...</b>
Mona Hatoum
Orangery
Ornament
Ornament und Crime
Parastou Forouhar
Philip Taaffe
Raimund Pleschberger
Raqib Shaw
Rashid Rana
Rationalism
Sabine B. Vogel
Sakshi Gupta
Sarah Morris
Shirin Neshat
Siegfried Kracauer
vienna
ewa stern
wolfgang haas
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