Oliver Laric, 'The Hunter and His Dog', 2015

Oliver Laric: Giving Away the Moulds Will Cause No Damage to His Majesty’s Casts

Curated by Victor Wang
Austrian Cultural Forum London
23 April – 3 July 2015

Objects move generously online, freely accelerating beyond institutional borders and geographies. From sculpture to image and back to sculpture again, we present the first institutional solo exhibition of Austrian artist Oliver Laric in London. This solo exhibition, presents a unique opportunity to explore the work of artist Laric by bridging different moments in time. Through the utilization of 3D scans, the exhibition brings together a diverse collection of objects and artworks sourced from selected museum collections, including a highly debated marble column from the Old Summer Palace in Beijing's Yuanmingyuan.

Laric engages in the practice of digitizing historical artifacts from esteemed institutions such as The Collection and the Usher Gallery in Lincoln, UK, as well as the KODE Art Museums in Bergen, among others. These digital reproductions are made available online for public use without any copyright restrictions. The dissemination of these artworks as digital information allows for them to reach a global audience, effectively relinquishing the concept of authorship for the purpose of fostering collaboration and expanding the collective project. As these digitized works exist simultaneously in physical museum spaces and on computer hard drives, they also have the potential to be temporarily exhibited at the Austrian Cultural Forum. With this break from source material and context, the value of sculpture is levelled. Marble becomes plastic; traditional galleries become office tables and bedrooms. Multiple perspectives take hold of the image, with the original continuously reshaped as it moves across networks and galleries.

In conjunction with the exhibition, there will be the official release of Oliver Laric's publication entitled "Lincoln 3D Scans," which serves as a catalogue of scanned objects that will serve as the foundation for future iterations. The publication will be available for purchase at the opening reception for a cost of £10.

Oliver Laric (born 1981 Innsbruck, Austria), lives and works in Berlin. Self-titled solo shows at ar/ge kunst Galerie Museum, Bolzano; Tanya Leighton, Berlin; Oliver Laric: Lincoln 3D scans, The Collection and Usher Gallery, Lincolnshire; and Yuanmingyuan 3D, ENTRÉE, Bergen (all 2014). Recent group shows include Triennial: Surround Audience, New Museum, New York; All Tomorrow’s Past, Kunsthaus Hamburg; Lumination, Patricia Low Contemporary, Gstaad; and Hybridize or Disappear, Museu Nacional De Arte Contemporânea Do Chiado, Lisbon. Forthcoming solo shows will take place at CCA, Tel Aviv and Austrian Cultural Forum, London (both 2015) and Secession, Vienna (2016).

The exhibition is supported by The Arts and Culture Division of the Federal Chancellery of Austria (BKA)

  Oliver Laric, 'Yuanmingyuan Column', 2014