ZURICH.- Galerie Peter Kilchmann is presenting the second solo exhibition by Armin Boehm in the gallery. Boehm was born in 1972 in Aachen and lives and works in Berlin. Through his very complex imageries in terms of both content and design, Boehm creates a fascinating cosmos, inspiring the observer in a refreshingly direct, yet uncommented manner to reflect about the values and claims to validity of our modern society. Following up on his series The end of capitalism Boehm now presents a new group of works, consisting of several large and middle-sized paintings and works on paper.
Under the title Involution, Boehm, more then ever, portraits us in this new body of works as a society in its late decadent stage, as a result of which new ethics are being generated by shifting values. The primary focus in his compositions lies on the polarity of origin and development, of „back to the roots“-ideology and „high-end“-technology and the question of the role that humans will assume between those poles now and in the future.
The work „Journey to the centre of the ai“ (ai = artificial intelligence), 160 x 180 cm (see invitation card), shows a group of characters, among them two hybrid-creatures, an infant with a mechanical inner life and a cross-legged person, which – as one could assume – are residing on the precarious threshold between the cradle of mankind and the new high-end world. Resting on a wooden stretcher, they are being lifted by an African aboriginal from what seems to be a subterrestrial parallel world. On the shoulders of a further aboriginal weighs the load of the connecting stairway to the upper world. A rising cyborg with a glowing brain receives the stretcher in order to, it seems, carry it to the opposite shore of a grim looking river. Another man-machine creature with a half bare female body apathetically stares into an unknown distance. While the Earth’s opening, bathed in warm light, provides wide views of an idyllic African landscape, the seemingly threatening Shanghai skyline overshadows the far shore of the upper world.
The polarity becomes not just manifest in regards to content, but also by Boehm’s creative means. The delicately painted pastel shades and round harmonic shapes are interspersed with a sharp brush stroke and angular architectural elements. Intense and almost blinding colours shift into ash-grey shadings. Collaged pieces of fabric render the faces a somewhat sculptural, haptic appearance that increases the narrative and cinematic 3D-effect of the scenes encouraging the viewer to continue exploring.
