Oliver Laric

July 23 – September 3 2017

Oliver Laric’s (b. 1981, lives and works in Berlin) artistic practice consists of video and sculpture significantly informed by digital information and communication technologies. Using digital media to conduct his research, Laric appropriates and processes his findings, filtering them back into reality by using a seemingly endless variability of computer software, much like a sculptor would use a set of tools. Creating 3D scans of art-historical sculptures and using a selection of software programs, Laric remixes his files producing unexpected and surprising chimera, finally materialising the results into reality via a 3D printer.
The artist’s sculptural process is not limited to the final stage of producing a three-dimensional object, but crucial from the beginning; the procedure of scanning becomes integral, as well as the decision to make available the scan files for free download online. Laric’s process is on the one hand an unwritten and implied manifesto for the democratisation of high culture, and on the other, evidence of his interest in the invigoration of historically canonized form through its very democratization. Others are encouraged to use specific digital data as sculptural material in order to represent or manifest their own ideas. The artist’s practice refers to a concept of expanded sculpture: through digital media it can be processed, disseminated and received in an alternative way, and thus become active.
At Kunsthalle Winterthur, Laric shows reliefs that are the result of a digital superposition of two scans and a combination of 3D printing and traditional resin casting processes. He also presents a site-specific graffiti wall painting and a digital video animation. Using familiar and stylistically consistent cartoon characters recreated with a vector program, Laric animates the characters into continuous and unpredictable metamorphosis.

Oliver Kielmayer