VIENNA.- Ane Mette Hol explores marginal phenomena of art production. Her eye locked on minor matter—items that fall on the ground while making art in the studio, for instance, or traces left in an exhibition space after installing the works—she sharpens the viewers’ awareness of the conditions surrounding artistic production.

A piece of packing paper randomly dropped on the floor, indicating that the exhibition space was only recently painted—splattered dispersion paint complete with specks of dust; color checkers and gray cards used in reproduction photography to adjust the exposure so that the picture is as close to the depicted object as possible; lined notebooks or sketchbooks decorated with pencils or other visual clichés, stacks of paper and packaging material: on closer inspection all these inconspicuous materials and scraps turn out to be detailed, perfectly rendered drawings.

The high level of precision on which Ane Mette Hol operates in her drawn objects, the meticulous rigor with which she imitates shades and color nuance, and the deliberate deceleration she applies to her own work process—all this contributes to her recalibrating the relationship between production and reproduction. Worthless objects like packaging materials, a shipping box, and stacks of paper are exhibited as photorealistic images and in reference to ostensibly anachronistic genres like the trompe l’oeil. Although Hol’s drawing and astute manipulation bespeak almost excessive affirmation, the objects themselves remain off-the-shelf commodities and disposable goods—elements of a throwaway society. In Hol’s artistic recycling process, however, the parameters of artmaking and the artist’s contemplations become visible via her own tools.

Ane Mette Hol not only uses conventional drawing materials like pencils, charcoal, or pastels but also picks up unusual ones such as wax, silver, and acrylic lacquer. The artist analyzes surface textures and reconstructs them in a painstaking, lengthy process. In doing so, she often transfers her drawings’ carrier material from one specific state into another—a transformation that brings out supposed readymades, mirror images or picture puzzles of reality, and “simulacra“, at once strange and fascinating copies without originals.

Curated by Franz Thalmair