Emanuel Ehgartner: assorted measured coated

Emanuel Ehgartner is using forms of the everyday urban space in his artistic practice. Strolling through the city, he sometimes discovers objects which - for no specific reason - arouse his interest. They mostly come from an architectural, industrial or technical context and are found on abandoned construction sites or as trash beneath the street. He takes everything that is not nailed down to his studio, where he investigates these everyday objects with respect to their sculptural quality and modifies them by minimal interventions like additions and removals. Certain objects, which he cannot take to his studio, are rebuilt by himself. Through the isolation of significant constructive elements, Ehgartner abstracts these objects from the „real“ world where they originate from. So he transforms items from their functional context into only aesthetic ideas. Within this process of abstraction the use of colour is essential for Ehgartner. He gives the objects a new surface through the application of selected colours (which are also often found as “couleurs trouvés”). On the one hand, he appropriates these readymades in a subjective way, on the other hand, he supports their aesthetic quality. Due to Ehgartners subtle interventions, the link to the initial context is always maintained. His works move between two poles: Depending on the viewpoint, they can be seen as specific everyday object or as abstract minimal artwork. The idea of authenticity is absent. It is of no importance whether the things are “readymade” or built by the artist himself. The same can be said about the colours. The emancipatory potential of Ehgartner´s art lies in this conceptual equivalence. He is influenced by both, the tradition of the “avantgarde” and post-modern strategies of art production. The artist appropriates public space from which he takes his materials: rational and functional items, that always inherit the potential of an alternative use. Making these objects visible might allow a vision of another world within the existing one.