Grounded No. Four

Daniel Hölzl

Installation

Grounded no. Four is part of an ongoing series of works, which poses questions about temporality, contrasting revolutionary technologies and materials, globalisation and how we occupy spaces of movement especially in times like these. Considering forms of transportation as well as the zeitgeist issues around pandemic mobility, the question apparent becomes: what and who stays grounded? Analogue photography of aeroplanes shot in 2018, which is then digitally scanned, edited and reframed, forms the basis for the monochrome paintings and underlines the dualities of this new body of work. Not only does this series inherit conceptual ideas from the installations cycle no. one (2018) and cycle no. two (2019), but it sources all its materials from the two same site specific works. By extending the new series, the former slowly but surely vanishes. The recycled carbon fiber from cycle no. two enters yet another phase and fuses with the melted wax from cycle no. one. Layer by layer, the hot wax is applied onto, what is initially, a fragile carbon fiber fabric, which bears marks from its previous use. Once cooled another labour intensive process begins, wherein the wax is remelted and, whilst strictly following the characteristics and contours of the now hardened carbon fiber canvas, the image is rendered by hand with a modified soldering iron. Line after line the wax is melted away again, but some lines are stopped instinctively creating a glitch-like effect. The final image, that of the plane detail, is created through a reverse process with a likeness to binary code, as equal value is given to both the negative and positive space.