André Bless

April 20 – June 1 2014

The main focus of André Bless’ work (b.1950, lives and works in Winterthur) is on the illusionistic and aesthetic potential of the medium of light. Bless likes to play with and challenge human perception; he is not so much interested in phenomena that stimulate intellectual discourse but much more in that which seems ordinary and self-evident at first sight.
In the main hall, Double Scan (2014) tests the relation between visual perception and intellectual cognition: Two beams of light, moving orthogonally to each other, look as if they were scanning the walls of the gallery. Within them a text about light and insects appears, but to understand its overall context remains impossible. Even if all information is given step by step, the human powers of recall and imagination are insufficient to turn the visual perception into cognitive knowledge.
In Bless’ recent works the aesthetic quality inherent to sources of light has become more prominent. Belle Vue (2014) for example is a minimal setting, comprising of only a light bulb and a shelf for postcards, but it surprises with throwing unexpectedly dramatic shadows. The large scale projections Strahler (2013) and Snowblind (2013) also put the mesmerizing quality of light centre stage: a spotlight and the headlights of a snow groomer slowly turn on to full. This procedure is repeated as a negative film, resulting in a loop that switches from absolute brightness into darkness and back. Like the insects that dash onto the drum, attracted by the light in HIGH MOON (2012), humans also can hardly flee the attraction of light; the setting is simple, yet the effects are tantalising.

Oliver Kielmayer