Katarina Matiasek’s MOCK ROCK focuses on the rampant use of a design
element that few of us would even notice. Combing such diverse
environments as zoos, museums, churches, theaters, department stores,
spas and climbing gardens, the artist traces the artificially-simulated
rock formations used to create the look and feel of nature.
References pointing to the various social contexts behind these obsessive rock stagings are always at the edge of the image, so that the works become picture puzzles asking us to hunt for clues – clues about our relationship to increasingly synthetic environments, but also the real conditions of their construction and the world that they are replacing.
MOCK ROCK also draws a connection between this relentless theatrical staging and the photographic medium’s own illusionistic formations. Presented together in an installation, photographs of the nature-simulating rock structures convene to form a comprehensive, monolithic exhibition element.
VIENNA ART WEEK, 2014
viennaartweek.at
References pointing to the various social contexts behind these obsessive rock stagings are always at the edge of the image, so that the works become picture puzzles asking us to hunt for clues – clues about our relationship to increasingly synthetic environments, but also the real conditions of their construction and the world that they are replacing.
MOCK ROCK also draws a connection between this relentless theatrical staging and the photographic medium’s own illusionistic formations. Presented together in an installation, photographs of the nature-simulating rock structures convene to form a comprehensive, monolithic exhibition element.
VIENNA ART WEEK, 2014
viennaartweek.at