Color Arrangement 14
Künstler/in
Peter Jellitsch
(geb. 1982 in Villach, Kärnten)
Date2019
ClassificationsMalerei
MediumAcryl auf Leinwand
Dimensions180 × 160 cm; Rahmen: 182 × 162 × 4,5 cm
Credit LineArtothek des Bundes
Object number28317
DescriptionThe current renewed focus on gestures is of an entirely different nature, one might sense an inversion of the generosity that has accompanied previous descriptions and illustrations of gestures, as major players such as Apple and Google seek to seize as many patents of gestures as possible given the rapid advance of haptic technologies, of which the most emblematic might be Apple’s “slide to unlock” gesture. The representation of gestures in such patents is often illustrated via a sequence of numbered dots instructing a movement somewhat reminiscent of a “connect the dots” puzzle, traceable by ones fingers. Nevertheless, drawings in patents are not always precise, specialized or even useful. Peter Jellitsch has incorporated one of these apparently superfluous drawings from a patent(1), depicting a Happy Family(2), transitioning this image onto his very first series of canvas paintings. Jellitsch copied each of the paintings by projecting his freehand copy of the patent’s side note onto canvas. More explicitly, they have been traced—always partly—onto canvasses of different sizes and shapes, with their background painted in diverse colors. He has created a subject-based, numbered color system for this series; every canvas has been enriched with a number corresponding to its color.
Every work in this series consists of four canvasses that have been screwed together, culminating in unique repetitions of the same image. The repetition in different colors(3) implies Jellitsch’s complete dispossession of the image as he alters its properties, such as size, proportion and color, at his will, of all things snatched up from a regulating document whose nature is to claim an idea or system and leverage in case of the idea’s or system’s usage. It is almost as if Jellitsch has found a weak spot in the patent apparatus by dislocating the least important image in this particular patent and elevating it to art.
Excerpt from the Text “How to Capture a Gesture” by Sandra Petrasevic (2019).
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(1) That meanwhile expired in June 2019.
(2) Jellitsch's title for the illustration.
(3) Of course, a pioneer being Warhol.
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