artathina 23 - 25.5. 08 - helexpo palace
roman pfeffer / ανδρέας βούσουρας
Roman Pfeffer
What is seen is described, what is described is seen, version 1 is the title of a work by Jonathan Monk for which he had a painting by Mark Rothko copied after an exact description of it.
By thematizing this work by Monk in one of his “text paintings”, Roman Pfeffer perpetuates this game of reversals. By placing a description of Monk’s work on a canvas he turns the description into a painting once again. Although this picture is the appropriation of an appropriation and a reproduction of the Rothko-original, it does not contain some of its essential characteristics.
Yet another work by the artist undergoes similar transformations. An imaginary 500-euro note is reduced to its basic components. The result is a One Million Euro stack of 2000 sheets of paper with a one-millimetre coat of violet colour.
Roman Pfeffer usually provides the final product without supplying us with its original state by way of solution. It is the title that puts us on the right track. Who would imagine that the mirror covered with stripes of colour is a self-portrait? The stripes are a form of Columnar derived by the artist from the Latin alphabet and the surface area of its individual letters; written here is the name of the artist.
Similarly, it is the title My Wardrobe for a Day that provides us with the relevant information about the work: the six preserving jars on a shelf with brand names written on it are filled with the ashes of the artist’s clothes.
On closer inspection, Roman Pfeffer goes a step further in this process of transformation by setting up yet another system of reference via the compact and simplified text of the title, a system that the viewer has to decipher. It is up to the viewer to establish a relationship between work and title in order to allow another image to emerge.
Text by Elsy Lahner