The room covered with
a grid of black lines refers to rooms used to simulate reality, and especially
references the famous Holo Deck on Starship Enterprise. This first version
was in black and white, and the recreation is 'to the best of our abilities
under the circumstances', much like a rural museum run by a single owner
with not enough cash and little knowledge but a lot of enthusiasm. In the installation
the grid versus reality, a reality to be simulated within this abstract
quantification, applies to Schrat's work in a general sense as the economic
system versus the social system; in a condensed format: Money versus things
that it can be exchanged for. Henrik Schrat has staged
the project FEEDING
BACK, Manager in Residence at Slade School of Fine Art, bringing a
person with a corporate background into the college for three months.
On on hand the project was understood as a long term perforamande, on
the other hand it got transfered into a serious administrative undertaking
of the college. A short story of the project - which finished in May 2002
- and a few initial pieces emerging from this project will be shown, embedding
the whole project within a narrative context. Schrat again uses cartoons
and comics to open up space beyond the "reality" parts of the
project, and to insist on the artistic dimension of the process. |