2022

Authorship: Studio Tobias Rehberger London

Collaboration: Tobias Rehberger, David Berens ,Lutz Bantel and Victor Sardenberg

Work developed: Coding, rationalization and file fabrication

The lounge walls and floor are populated with rectilinear forms that bear perpendicular black-and-white stripes. The line between vertical and horizontal surfaces is blurred, tempting us to walk up the walls as though we are characters in Christopher Nolan’s Inception. Though distinctively contemporary, the pattern also pays homage to dazzle painting, a camouflage technique that British artists developed for battleships during the First World War. This tradition has inspired Rehberger’s art since 2009, when he created a dazzle-pattern cafeteria that won him the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale the same year.

‘Camouflage is such a fantastic paradox,’ Rehberger reflects. ‘It uses such loud and strong visual language, but to disguise what you shouldn’t be looking at, or to make sure that you won’t see something even if you do look at it. It’s the opposite of the idea of visual art. Which is why I think dazzle painting works best not in an exhibition space, but in a space with another function – in this case a lounge.’

Full article: https://www.wallpaper.com/art/into-the-maze-tobias-rehberger-lg-oled-frieze-london