Paraphrase: The Slaughtered Sleeping Bag

mixed media Stephanie Müller and Klaus E. Dietl media: sleeping bag, textile bricolage, painting, drawing, mirror ball, sound, light measurements: 1,20 m x 2,10 m x 0,80 m

Rembrandt's painting "The Slaughtered Ox" (1655) is known as the incunable of the disembowelled and beheaded animal in art history. His motif has inspired a lot of other artists to explore the possibilities of painting without restraints: Lovis Corinth (1905), Chaim Soutine (1893 till 1943) and Francis Bacon (1946) all refer to Rembrandt's composition.

The artwork puts the traditional motif of the slaughtered animal in the midst of a world of pop cultural quotes. The inside of the sleeping bag is equipped with visual information painted and embroidered into various surfaces. Textile objects and speaker boxes dangling from the sleeping bag remind us of bowels. The speakers transmit samples of conversations about nourishment and greed. A mirror ball symbolizes a so-called "empty organ" which isn't equipped with any visual material itself, but reflects everything else instead. Thus the mirror ball points directly to the popcultural stage of quoting and sampling.

Review

• Ansichten - Kunst im Sack (Kunstbulletin, Artlog)