Viadukt

His exploration begins with the basic geometric shapes, dealing with the principle of the series, a central element of screen printing, and the relationship between colour, rhythm and movement. Considerations regarding the interaction between the viewer and the work of art are also crucial, in particular the idea that changing one’s point of view allows one to constantly re-experience an artwork.

Intense, luminous colours are arranged into patterns of stripes, rectangles, circular sections and squares, mounted on brightly coloured backgrounds. The serial arrangement of these graphical elements within rhythmic colour gradients creates a spatial effect that appears to create optical illusions in the perception of the viewer.

Because the framed, abstract screen prints create a two-dimensional impression at first glance, it is only on closer inspection you notice that the works are actually geometric reliefs. Through precise folding, the individual shapes stand out physically from the background.

In his exhibition for Viaduct, Wegerer’s Folded Figures free printmaking from the surface in additional ways – he further breaks the given (picture) frame by continuing his elementary geometric forms onto the walls and setting them as pictorial sculptures in the space itself. The dynamic structure of these folded surfaces creates a tension with the viewer’s gaze as their perspective shifts within the gallery. Concurrent with this movement in front of the picture, the motif of movement is also generated within the pictures themselves, through use of the ‘tilt effect’. This technique evokes a continuous shift between a concave and a convex perception of space in the viewer:

colours change from light to dark, shapes jump back and forth. Fine lines, delicate patterns and painterly traces accentuate these effects in such a way that the interplay of colour, shape and rhythm, far from becoming exhausted, brings forth an unending multitude of variations.
With his folded work, Michael Wegerer stages new spaces for perception and thinking that maintain ties to the formal language of Concrete Art, whilst expanding this aesthetic to include the illusion of movement. Having studied at the Royal Collage of Art in London, Wegerer typically sites British role models and influences. Parallels can nevertheless be found among the Austrian representatives of Op Art2 who navigated similar concerns. For example, Helga Philipp’s interest in the basic geometric shapes produced comparable outcomes. She used embossing to bring depth to her early screenprints and later produced layer graphics as reliefs. She also created plexiglass objects of up to five layers that granted optical effects to her sculptures. In terms of lineage, to understand Wegerer’s implementation of visual phenomena it is important to acknowledge the colour theories of Josef Albers who, starting in the 1950s, investigated the relationship between form, colour and spatial effects in his series Homage to the Square, wherein he explored countless variations of three or four monochromatic squares juxtaposed one inside of another. Equally, the Folded Figures also have a clear relation to Wegerer’s own practice, in particular his Papierskulpturen, which he has been continuously working on since 2006, and the graphical woodcut reproductions he makes of everyday objects such as tables, armchairs, ladders and doors. The artist describes his process as circular, wherein he always returns to the beginning and – like in screen printing – takes up existing elements again, repeating and reprocessing them.

The philosopher Vilém Flusser3 proposes that thinking follows the technical conditions of its means of expression. If we transfer this hypothesis to printmaking, we find that, in contrast to other genres, the individual components and templates that make up an image are arranged horizontally upon the surface. Not only does this “horizontal thinking” fundamentally differentiate printmaking from the working methods on which photography, painting and sculpture are based, it is also essential to Michael Wegerer’s practice. Although he does make use of these other mediums to create his work, and the finished print subsequently becomes an object, a sculpture or a room installation, the starting point for all of his potential is the horizontal surface that lies in wait upon the printing table.

1 Vgl. Axel Köhne, Neue Tendenzen: Wege in die Abstraktion, in: Agnes Husslein-Arco, Axel Köhne (Hg.), Ausstellungskatalog Abstract Loop Austria, 21er Haus Wien, 2016, S. 9.
2 Der Begriff Op-Art (Optical Art) hat sich im Zuge der legendären Ausstellung The Responsive Eye herausgebildet, die 1965 im Museum of Modern Art, New York stattfand, und sich endgültig im Diskurs durch einen im Time Magazine erschienen Artikel etabliert. Vgl. Ebd. S. 16.
3 Brigitte Borchhardt-Birbaumer, Serielle Strukturen. Helga Philipp und die Konkreten, in: Ebd. S. 84. 4 Vgl. Beat Wyss, Fragmente zur Kunstgeschichte der Medien, in: René Hirner, Museum Heidenheim (Hg.), Vom Holzschnitt zum Internet. Die Kunst und die Geschichte der Bildmedien von 1450 bis heute, Ostfildern-Ruit 1997, S. 10.