Peace Monsters

Artist Moritz Reichelt created a new series of works titled "Peace Monsters" for the "Embedded Art"-Exhibition.

EMBEDDED ART was an interdisciplinary exhibition focussing on the societal shifts caused by the universal desire for security. Showing only works realised on location or against a background of research into future security.

Reichelt´s five paintings portrait real people, esoteric developers of futuristic weapons, army strategies, psi and psychotronic warfare.



Victor Selivanov. Acrylic on canvas, 150 x 150 cm.
Visionary theorist of so-called "non-lethal-weapons", including chemicals like Fentanyl-Gas. This gas was used to "free" the hostages of the Moscow musical-theater, but in the process 170 people have been killed by the substance.
Selivanov writes theoretical-strategic essays on psychological warfare. In one of his lectures on psychotronic weapons (weapons that influence the brain), he refers an experiment of well-known mathematician Buridan (Buridan´s ass): a donkey is offered two bales of hay, identical in size and placed exactly in the same distance from the animal. The donkey is unable to decide and starves to death.



Colonel John B. Alexander. Acryicl on canvas, 150 x 150 cm.
He is the godfather of the esoteric think-tank-scene of the US-military. Supposedly retired. He was commanding an army department that experimented with psi-phenomena, like "walking through walls" or "killing with thoughts". He is consulting the German government about new technology and weapons. He is regarded as the "pope" of "non-lethal-weapons" and he promotes them since the early 1990s. Back then he was located in the Los Alamos Institutes, where -among other things- the atomic bomb was conceived.



James "Jim" Channon. Acrylic on canvas, 150 x 150 cm.
He is an esoteric military-guru and army-networker who lives in Hawaii. Channon invented the "1st Earth Battallion", a utpian peace-army that is supposed to establish a new world order by means of tricky psychological interventions. He likes to be seen as a shaman. He furthermore gives scientology-esque lectures, which should teach the participants to become perfect, universe-centered warriors. He is currently planning to establish an outlet of his consulting business in the game "Second Life".



Janet Morris. Acrylic on canvas, 150 x 150 cm.
Ex-hipie, science-fiction author, weapon producer and horse-breeder.
As leader of the development dept. of CIA-linked "Global Security Council" she propagates so called "non-leathal-weapons". She writes strategic papers for the US-Army. Her favourite citation is: "Stop killing your customers". As chairman of weapon company "M2" (they offer nano-technological weapons) she breeds an old horse breed that is preferably used as police-horses. She is also a busy author of slightly rassist novels in which she likes to orchestrate the "eternal war between good and evil." Her books are mostly published as companion pieces to foreign assignments of the US military.



John "Jack" Cover. Acrylic on canvas, 150 x 150 cm.
He is the inventor of the taser-gun, an electronic close combat weapon. The Taser is manufactured by Taser Inc. who refer to it as a "electronic human control device". The Taser is increasingly used by polics and security companies to arrest people.
Cover was inspired by the pulp nover "Electric Rifle" by Thomas A. Swift. Covers patented his weapon in 1970 on an older patent by a German gunsmith H.G. Cordes who had invented an electric wale-harpoon.

Alchemists of Sound

Everything you ever wanted to know about the legendary BBC Radiohonic workshop! Even if you never wanted to know anything about it in the first place, do yourself a favour and watch this six part documentary. It´s an hour well spent!


Part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5 and part 6

The Vyrotonin Decision

The Vyrotonin Decision by Matt McCormick is a post modern disaster epic featuring thirty-six appropriated television commercials from 1971. using a hole punch, junk store splicer, and lots of tape and glue, the vyrotonin decision is a hand-made film constructed from the images and sounds of dumpster-rescued television studio discards from the days before video replaced 16mm production. the vyrotonin decision mocks the formula of current hollywood blockbusters while re-inventing some of televisions most embarrassing moments.

Down in the Subway

Russian artist Alex Andreev claims that it is forbidden to take photos in the Moscow subway system. His disturbing and surreal evidence could be the reason why...

Rear Projection

Busy bee John Waters has just opened a new exhibition of his hilarious work at the Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles.



Brilliantly titled Rear Projection, John gathers another wild mix of his screen-shot collages and distortions (Children who smoke) and all new, giant pop-art sculptures of Ike Turner playing with a Tina marionette, leaking poppers-bottles (which he admits using not for sex but on rollercoasters only!) and ridiculously expensive Hollywood cosmetic.



Once more, Waters fiendishly turns his obsessions into an entertaining and acidic show of satire, art and consumerism that caters to film freaks, pop-art fans and hillbillies alike.



More pictures and details. ahd check out the private Tour below! It´s almost like being there...

Overlit Chrome

American photo- or hyperrealism was a very successful art form in Germany during the 1970s.

I think that these ultra-realistic paintings offered many non-Americans a much more comfortable grip and understanding of the "American Dream". For many left-leaning critics Pop-Art embraced consumerism and the banality of art a bit too friendly and carefree.



Photorealism, on the other hand baffled with spectacular painting techniques and a completely irony-free, piercing stare into the American landscape. The shiny, glaring surface on many paintings was either over saturated with colours or so overexposed, almost bleached by the sun, that you´d reach for your sunglasses instinctively.



Suburban scenes of people standing in front of their houses and cars, sunbathing inhabitants next to the countless backyard pools, details of cars, reflecting showrooms, diners, close-ups of candy and dripping jelly-cakes, fractures of baroque neon-signs by day and crashed limousines rotting in high grass. You almost feel like a voyeur.




Like failed attempts of the perfect advertisement, glimpses into a mostly empty world that is filled with useless and decorative place holders.

I think that photorealism is still amazing because it managed to transform a seemingly banal picture into something worth looking at by subjecting it to imaginary sunlight.

Today, Photoshop allows us to create pictures that are so hyper-perfect that the unreal effect is nearly the same. It also allows us to create a picture in "photorealistic style" with the help of a filter. It makes it much more interesting to see what they saw.



I always loved photorealism because it pictured (and suggested) exactly what I liked and what I missed growing up in rebuilt but still scarred Germany: The vast spaces, the tacky colours, the bizarre chrome, the humming of air-condition, lonely palm trees and kidney-shaped pools.



The Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin is currently hosting "Picturing America - Photorealism in the 1970s", which is the first extensive exhibition in Germany for 30 years, covering the most prominent works of Robert Bechtle, Charles Bell, Tom Blackwell, Chuck Close, Robert Cottingham, Don Eddy, Richard Estes, Audrey Flack, Franz Gertsch, Ralph Goings, Ron Kleeman, Richard McLean, Malcolm Morley, Stephen Posen, John Salt, Ben Schonzeit and Paul Staiger

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