Wolfgang Neipl :
Sculpture in Loosdorf

Like the periscope of a U-boat, this sculpture rises from the artificially arranged nature of a biotope which can be walked round by means of a path. The tube – made of stainless steel with a circumference of 40cm – turns on its vertical axis, as if it were moved by a human hand, like an observation instrument. This oscillating movement encourages the visitor to take a walk round the pond, and want to see the electronic images of the computer animation from the inside of the sculpture. From there, the light beams of a monitor are transmitted, bundled through a concave mirror and thus sent to the observer as a light-reinforced, enlarged and slightly distorted image. The computer animation displays a blinking eye, consisting of individual images of the artist's eye. The blinking of the eye contains a double meaning within itself. On one hand it can be a very personal, humorous and perhaps even erotic way of making interpersonal contact ('winking'), on the other hand the closed eye can become a sign of irritation ('to have something in one’s eye', 'to be blinded'). With this fixed installation it became possible to confront the artificially created nature of a biotope with an electronic-mechanical formal language of temporal conditionality. The monitor image is in this way placed in a new kind of relationship to the setting in which it is presented. However due to the exposed location, exceptional demands are also made on the electronic image bearer (monitor) as well as on the drive mechanism. If the monitor is switched off during the day, the surrounding landscape can be seen in the concave mirror instead of the monitor image.